NOV    2  1916 


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The  Truth  About  Christian 


Science 


NOV    2  1916 


BY 


GEORGE  M.  SEARLE 

of  the  Paulist  Fathers 


New  York 

THE    PAULIST    PRESS 

120  West  60th  Street 

1916 


Copyright,   1916,  by  "The  Missionary  Society  of 

St.  Paul  the  Apostle  in  the  State 

of  New  York  " 


nm\  ©bstat : 

REMIGIUS  LAFORT,  S.T.D., 

Censor 


IFmprimatur : 

►t-JOHN  CARDINAL  FARLEY, 

Ai'cJibisJiop  of  Neiu  York 


New  York,  February  y,  19 16. 


PREFACE 


Of  all  the  delusions,  in  the  matter  of  religion,  which 
have  at  any  time  gained  credence  among  apparently 
intelligent  people,  the  most  surprising,  perhaps,  is  that 
known  in  recent  times  as  '*  Christian  Science."  It  is 
quite  obvious  that,  as  has  been  well  remarked,  it  is 
neither  Christian  nor  Science.  For  a  doctrine  pro- 
fessing to  be  Christian  should  (as  is  evident)  be  one 
founded  on  the  words  of  Christ  as  a  whole,  which  the 
person  holding  such  a  doctrine  endeavors  to  explain  in 
their  genuine  sense ;  rather  than  on  theories  which  he 
himself  has  elaborated,  and  supports,  here  and  there, 
by  such  words  of  Christ  as  he  can  manage  to  fit  to 
suit  his  purpose.  Also,  a  system  professing  to  be 
scientific  should  rest  on  a  solid  basis  of  fact,  and 
be  stated  clearly  and  distinctly,  not  in  vague  generali- 
ties, which  are  either  truisms  or  have  no  precise  mean- 
ing whatever.  A  scientific  system  should  be  in  some 
way  a  contribution  to  our  knowledge.  But  the  most 
favorable  criticism  on  the  lucubration  known  as 
"  Christian  Science  "  would  be  that  it  contains  "  some 
things  which  are  new,  and  some  things  which  are  true ; 
but  the  things  which  are  true  are  not  new,  and  the 
things  which  are  new  are  not  true." 

The  book  of  Mrs.  Eddy's,  known  as  Science  and 
Health,  and  on  which  it  all  rests,  has  been  gladly  re- 
ceived by  many  people,  and  more  so  than  such  attempts 
usually  would  have  been  at  the  time  when  it  appeared ; 
and  this  because  it  professed  to  Obtain,  and  from  the 
Bible,  results  of  value,  not  so  much  for  the  world  to 

(vii) 


viii  Preface 

come,  as  for  that  which  now  is.  As  is  indicated  by  its 
title,  it  claimed  that  the  right  understanding  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ  would  give  to  those  who  obtained  it  a 
perfect  freedom  from  bodily  as  well  as  spiritual  disease. 
It  told  us  that  there  was  no  need  of  waiting  for  another 
life  to  be  free  from  the  chief  pain  and  suffering  which 
we  have  here ;  indeed  that  there  was  no  reality  in  what 
we  seem  to  feel  in  that  way,  even  now;  and  that  the 
main  object  of  Christ's  work  in  this  world  was  to  heal 
the  sick,  or  rather  those  who  imagined  themselves  to 
be  sick.  Get  rid  of  this  nonsense  about  being  sick,  and 
you  will  be  as  well  as  anybody  else;  that  was  the 
fujidamental  idea  of  Mrs.  Eddy. 

But  to  impress  this  idea  more  firmly  on  her  own 
mind  and  on  those  of  her  readers,  she  saw  that  it 
would  help  very  much  if  she  could  persuade  herself 
and  them,  that  there  was  no  real  existence  in  the  body 
in  which  they  thought  they  were  sick ;  and  going  even 
further,  that  there  was  no  reality  in  the  mind,  which 
could  entertain  such  erroneous  ideas;  that  nothing 
had  any  real  existence  except  the  divine  Mind,  which  is 
incapable  of  this  or  any  other  error.  And  consequently 
that  there  was  no  such  thing  as  creation  by  that  Mind 
of  anything  outside  of  itself.  It  was,  however,  neces- 
sary to  have  something  in  which  these  errors  could  be 
located.  She  could  not  help  seeing  this.  So  she 
boldly  gave  a  name  to  it,  and  called  it  '*  mortal  mind," 
and  let  it  go  at  that.  So  far  her  absurdities  were  chiefly 
philosophical.  But  hoping  that  they  would  not  be  no- 
ticed, she  does  not  consistently  stick  to  them,  but  con- 
tinually drops  them,  and  talks  about  what  she  tries  to 
discuss  according  to  the  notions  generally  prevalent,  or, 
in  other  words,  to  common  sense ;  and  even  ventures 
to  bring  physical  science,  as  generally  accepted,  to  help 


Preface  ix 

her  out.  But  her  ignorance  on  these  lines  is  so  palpable 
that  she  only  entangles  herself  more  and  more  by  it,  as 
well  as  by  her  inconsistency. 

The  more  intelligent  among  her  adherents  have  for  a 
good  while  perceived  this,  and  have  become  sufficiently 
aware  that  Science  and  Health  is  not  a  book  which 
can  bear  examination.  They  hope  that  it  can  be  kept  in 
the  background,  and  try  to  put  the  "  catching  "  ideas 
of  it  in  a  shape  that  will  not  be  so  fatal.  But  this  way 
of  proceeding,  though  it  may  succeed  for  a  time,  has 
no  right  to  do  so.  They  have  no  right,  even  on  their 
own  professed  beliefs,  to  do  what  they  are  now  at- 
tempting. For  the  book  professes  to  be  the  result  of  a 
Divine  inspiration  or  illumination  given  to  Mrs.  Eddy 
herself.  If  it  proves  not  to  be  that,  it  has  no  value 
whatever. 

Let  us,  then,  proceed  to  look  in  detail  at  Mrs. 
Eddy's  Science  and  Health,  with  which,  whether  it  was 
actually  written  by  her  or  not,  this  so-called  "  Christian 
Science  "  stands  or  falls.  It  seems  better  to  take  its 
actual  words,  which,  in  imitation  of  our  version  of 
Sacred  Scripture,  are  kindly  divided  into  chapters  and 
something  like  verses,  for  better  reference,  than  to 
attempt  the  task,  evidently  too  much  for  herself,  of 
constructing  a  system  from  them,  which  her  followers 
could  easily  disclaim ;  and  it  is  really  fairer  to  herself 
and  to  them.  Our  chapters  will  correspond  with  her 
own. 

The  book  itself  is  entirely  destitute  of  any  order  or 
system,  and  therefore  compels  any  review  or  examina- 
tion of  it  to  be  of  a  somewhat  similar  character.  It 
has,  of  course,  a  few  leading  or  principal  notions, 
which  are  continually  repeated,  indiscriminately,  in  all 
parts  of  it.     But  if  these  were  sifted  out  of  its  mass 


X  Preface 

of  verbiage,  it  might  be  urged  that  the  sifting  had  been 
unfairly  done,  and  did  not  correctly  represent  the 
author.  So  the  only  possible  course  seems  to  be  to  go 
through  with  the  book  in  its  own  actual  pretence  of 
order,  taking  these  false  notions  when  they  are  most 
prominently  stated,  and  with  them  the  other  absurdities 
which  she  intersperses  with  them,  and  serve  best  to 
show  her  utter  ignorance  of  the  subjects  of  which 
she  attempts  to  treat.  The  errors  into  which  she  con- 
tinually falls,  have  been  broached  often  before,  and 
defended  far  more  ably  than  she  was  able  to  defend 
them ;  and  shown  to  be  inconsistent  with  anything 
which  could  pretend  to  be  any  kind  of  Christian  doc- 
trine, or  even  with  reason  itself.  But  the  most  ef- 
fectual way  to  show  this  falsity  seems  to  be  to  illus- 
trate the  effects  which  they  had  on  her  own  deluded 
mind,  and  the  preposterous  ideas  which  she  associates 
with  them. 

In  general,  we  have  treated  of  them  from  a  point 
of  view  common  to  all  Christians  who  have  any  posi- 
tive system  of  religion  as  a  revelation;  but  sometimes 
we  have  stated  more  emphatically  the  Catholic  teach- 
ing on  the  matters  concerned,  as  notably  in  the  open- 
ing chapters,  where  it  seemed  to  be  more  specially 
necessary. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Prayer    i 

Atonement    and    Eucharist 6 

Marriage   33 

Christian  Science  and  Spiritualism 44 

Animal  Magnetism 57 

Science,  Theology,  Medicine 60 

"  Theology  "   89 

''  Medicine  "    93 

Physiology    99 

"  Footsteps  of  Truth  " 102 

Creation 114 

Science  of  Being 121 

Some  Objections  Answered 165 

Christian  Science  Practice 176 

Teaching  Christian  Science 192 

Recapitulation    197 

"  Key  to  the  Scriptures  " 216 

Key  to  the  Apocalypse 22/ 

Fruitage     2t,^ 

General   Remarks , 294 

(xi) 


THE 

Truth  About  Christian  Science 


CHAPTER  I. 

Prayer. 

This  opening  chapter  has  for  its  title,  "  Prayer." 
Its  first  words  are :  "  The  prayer  that  reforms  the 
sinner  and  heals  the  sick  is  an  absolute  faith  that  all 
things  are  possible  to  God."  This  article  of  faith 
is  one  of  the  truisms  to  which  we  have  alluded; 
that  is  to  say,  for  those  who  believe  in  the  existence 
of  God  at  all.  It  does  not,  however,  require  any  faith, 
properly  so  called,  to  endorse  this  statement.  It  is 
perfectly  ascertainable  by  unaided  reason ;  at  least 
if  we  do  not  take  it  as  applying  to  what  are  called 
metaphysical  impossibilities,  such  as  that  a  thing  can 
be  and  not  be  at  the  same  time.  But  it  is  fair  to  ad- 
mit that  this  would  also  be  her  own  understanding  of 
the  matter. 

It  can,  of  course,  besides  being  a  matter  of  reason, 
be  one  of  faith  also.  If  we  are  rationally  convinced 
of  the  existence  of  a  God,  properly  so-called,  and  He 
tells  us  that  all  things  are  possible  to  Him,  we  can 
take  His  word  for  it.  For  that  is  the  genuine  mean- 
ing of  the  word  "  faith,"  the  belief  of  a  statement  on 
the  word  of  another ;  though  inaccurate  writers  like 
Mrs.  Eddy  often  confuse  it  with  "  belief  "  in  general. 

However,  we  must  get  on  a  little  faster  than  this. 
Let  us  look  at  the  rest  of  these  opening  words.  "  The 
prayer,"  she  says,  is  an  "  absolute  faith."  If  she  had 
said  that  it  '"  requires  an  absolute  faith,"  it  w^ould  have 
been  all  right,  though  the  words  "  an  absolute  "  are 


2  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

superfluous.  But  prayer,  even  according  to  her  own 
words,  is  more  than  this.  For  it  includes,  as  she 
goes  on  to  say,  "  a  spiritual  understanding,  an  unselfed 
love."  Faith,  to  reform  a  sinner,  does  require  love, 
certainly;  and  hope  also.  But  that  love  is  required, 
to  heal  the  sick,  is  not  so  clear.  St.  Paul  seems  to 
say  that  it  is  not  needed  to  move  mountains  ( i  Cor. 
xiii.  2).  But  Mrs.  Eddy  speaks  of  "  unselfed"  love. 
Here  we  leave  the  region  of  truisms,  and  enter  that 
of  meaningless  phrases.  What  is  meant  by  ''  un- 
selfed"  love?  You  can't  keep  self  altogether  out  of 
love,  for  though  not  self  is  not  necessarily  the  object 
of  love,  it  is  the  agent  in  it.  If  it  is  love  on  the 
part  of  the  sinner  or  of  the  sick,  as  seems  to  be  the 
notion,  they  themselves  must  feel  it,  and  act  according 
to  it,  just  as  they  themselves  are  the  ones  to  have  the 
"  spiritual  understanding "  alluded  to.  But  really  at 
this  rate  we  shall  never  get  through  the  book,  or  even 
get  a  good  dose  of  it.  It  was,  however,  hardly  pos- 
sible to  deny  ourselves  this  little  gem  of  thought  with 
which  it  begins. 

She  goes  on.  "  Thoughts  unspoken  are  not  un- 
known to  the  Divine  Mind,"  We  should  think  not. 
Another  truism.  What  kind  of  a  Divine  Mind  would 
it  be,  to  which  they  were  unknown?  Next,  she  says, 
"  desire  is  prayer."  Not  at  all ;  desire  may  be  purely 
a  natural  affair,  having  no  relation  to  God  at  all.  For 
example,  what  prayer  is  there  in  a  desire  for  a  good 
meal,  already  prepared,  and  waiting  for  us?  Still  less 
is  there  in  a  desire  which  one  knows  to  be  sinful. 
Even  a  good  desire  is  not  necessarily  a  prayer.  It  may 
be  what  is  known  as  an  *'  inefficacious  "  desire,  which 
one  would  not  carry  out,  even  if  knowing  the  ability 
to  do  so. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  3 

But  she  now  leaves  the  Hne  of  mere  vagueness  and 
inaccuracy,  and  enters  that  of  absolute  and  funda- 
mental error.  "  God,"  she  says,  ''  is  not  moved  by  the 
breath  of  praise  to  do  more  than  He  has  already  done, 
nor  can  the  infinite  do  less  than  bestow  all  good."  The 
error  of  this  statement  is  quite  obvious.  If  God  is 
not  moved  by  the  "  breath  of  praise,"  there  is  no  rea- 
son why  He  should  be  moved  by  anything  else  that 
we  can  do ;  and  that  is  really  what  she  means.  Ac- 
cording to  this,  if  the  farmer  wants  the  Lord  to  give 
him  a  harvest,  it  makes  no  difference  whether  he  him- 
self plants  the  seed  for  it  or  not.  This  is  a  common 
and  superficial  objection  made  to  prayer,  but  it  would 
apply  just  as  well  to  any  exertion  on  our  part.  The  idea 
is  that  God  has  determined  what  He  is  going  to  do, 
independently  of  any  action  of  ours.  It  seems,  to 
those  who  make  this  objection,  that  this  indifference 
to  our  action  is  required  by  His  foreknowledge  of 
the  future.  But  the  fact  is  that  the  case  of  prayer 
or  of  other  actions  which  we  may  perform  are  really 
precisely  parallel.  The  Lord,  of  course,  knows  what 
our  action,  whether  of  praying,  or  of  sowing  the  seed, 
is  going  to  be.  And  in  both  cases,  equally,  His  ac- 
tion corresponds  to  ours.  In  both  cases  His  action 
,  is  less  than  it  would  be  if  we  ourselves  did  not  act.  In 
both  cases,  if  we  do  not  act.  Lie  actually  does  not 
"bestow  the  good"  (to  use  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  words) 
that  He  would  have  bestowed  if  we  had.  There  is  no 
ground  for  making  the  distinction  which  she  makes 
between  the  result  on  ourselves  and  on  other  mat- 
ters. If  the  result,  outside  of  ourselves,  is  to  be  the 
same  whether  we  pray  or  not,  the  same  rule  would 
apply  to  our  own  interior. 

In  praying,  no  sensible  person  ever  tries,  as  Mrs. 


4  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

Eddy  seems  to  suppose,  "  to  give  information  to  the 
infinite  Mind  of  God."  Possibly  she  might,  at  some 
time  in  her  previous  history,  have  made  such  attempts. 
But  she  seems  to  have  finally  arrived  at  the  reasonable 
conviction  that  they  would  be  futile,  even  for  her- 
self. 

This  false  conception  of  prayer  runs  through  the 
whole  chapter.  Another  form  of  it,  however,  seems 
deserving  of  special  mention.  She  says,  "  simply 
asking  that  we  may  love  God  will  never  make  us  love 
Him."  These  words  show  that  she  has  no  idea  of 
the  function  or  the  efficacy  of  Divine  grace.  As  far 
as  we  can  judge,  her  idea  is  that  we  can,  by  our- 
selves, work  ourselves  up  to  spiritual  perfection, 
though  unable  to  do  anything  outside  of  ourselves. 
But  the  truth  is  that  this  work  on  ourselves  is  the 
most  important  and  necessary  of  all  for  us  to  ask 
God  to  do  for  us.  ''  It  is  God,"  says  St.  Paul,  ''  Who 
worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  do  "  (Phil.  ii.  13). 
(This  quotation  is  from  her  own  Protestant  version, 
which  is  substantially  correct.)  The  idea  that  we  can 
even  start  this  work  of  ourselves  is  what  is  known 
as  Semi-Pelagian,  and  condemned,  not  only  by  the 
Catholic  Church,  but  by  Protestants  as  well. 

This  grace  of  God  is  given  to  us,  in  the  first  place, 
without  our  asking  for  it.  The  same  grace  also  moves 
us  to  ask  for  its  increase,  but  is  given  more  abund- 
antly, if,  by  means  of  it,  we  ask  for  more.  "Asking 
that  we  may  love  God,"  therefore,  is  really  the  princi- 
pal and  most  eflfectual  means  of  obtaining  the  love  of 
Him,  though  others  must  not  be  neglected.  So  this 
error  of  Mrs.  Eddy  is  of  the  gravest  importance. 

A  part  of  this  chapter  on  prayer  seems  to  go  on 
the  assumption  that  one  who  prays,  with  the  belief 


The  Truth  About  Chrislian  Science  5 

that  God  will  do  something  for  him  which  he  cannot 
himself  accomplish,  will,  on  principle,  as  it  were, 
neglect  any  effort  on  his  own  part  to  obtain  what  he 
asks  for.  That  there  are  some  who  deserve  this  re- 
proach cannot  be  doubted,  but  that  such  is  the  uni- 
versal, or  even  the  general,  rule  among  pious  or 
prayerful  Christians  is  simply  preposterous.  We 
trust  that  the  author  herself  did  not  belong  to  this 
class,  but  the  sweeping  character  of  her  assertions 
seems  to  strongly  suggest  that  the  idea  of  serious 
efforts  for  self-amendment  was  rather  a  new  one  to 
her  until  she  arrived  at  the  conviction  that  prayer,  in 
the  usual  sense,  must  be  dropped  before  such  efforts 
could  be  begun.  That  they  must  be  persistently  made 
is  very  true,  and  constantly  insisted  on  by  all  spiritual 
writers;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  a  sort  of  novelty 
to  her.  It  is  one  of  the  many  doctrines  on  which  she 
is  inclined  to  dwell,  which  may  be  classed  as  true,  but 
by  no  means  new. 

"  Seeking,"  she  says,  "  is  not  sufficient.  It  is  striv- 
ing that  enables  us  to  enter."  It  really  never  seems 
to  enter  her  head  that  we  might  perhaps  combine 
the  two. 

The  main  trouble  with  this  poor  woman,  whose  at- 
tempts in  the  line  of  religion  we  are  obliged  to  criti- 
cize, on  account  of  the  harm  which  circumstances  have 
enabled  them  to  do,  is  simply  ignorance  of  the  sub- 
jects she  undertakes  to  discuss. 

We  ought  not  to  conclude  this  chapter  without  a 
few  words  on  Mrs.  Eddy's  attempt  to  improve  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  It  is  true  that  she  gives  it  as  what 
she  understands  to  be  its  "  spiritual  sense ; "  as  if 
Our  Lord  Himself  did  not  know  much  about  the 
spiritual  sense  of  things.     Commentaries  on  it  are,  of 


6  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

course,  quite  lawful,  in  which  the  actual  words  are 
strictly  adhered  to,  and  made  the  subject  of  reverent 
meditation.  But  there  is  not  much,  if  any,  doubt  that 
she  expected  and  intended  hers  to  be  used  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  actual  Divine  words.  It  seems  to  us 
sacrilegious  to  give  it  here,  though  it  may  suit  those 
to  do  so  who  regard  Mrs.  Eddy  as  a  being  superior 
to  Our  Lord  and  Saviour,  and  as  possessed  of  the 
perfect  knowledge  of  Christian  Science,  of  which  He 
was  only  quite  an  imperfect  student. 


CHAPTER  n. 

Atonement  and  Eucharist. 

In  reading  this  chapter,  one  can  hardly  help  being 
moved  to  compassion  for  the  writer.  Like  many  other 
Reformers  of  the  Reformation,  notably  Emanuel  Swe- 
denborg,  she  was  apparently,  and  probably  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  in  total  ignorance  of  the  true  Christian  teach- 
ing against  which  the  unfortunate  protest  of  the  six- 
teenth century  was  made.  Orthodox  Christianity,  in 
her  mind,  is  identical  with  Lutheranism.  She  evi- 
dently imagines  that  it  does  not  suppose  the  sinner  to 
be  actually  freed  from  his  sin,  but  only  to  be  able  to 
prevent  God  from  punishing  it,  by  means  of  the  merits 
of  Christ.  "  If  the  sinner,"  she  says,  "  continues  to 
pray  and  repent,  sin  and  be  sorry,  he  has  little  part 
in  the  atonement — in  the  at-one-ment  with  God — for 
he  lacks  the  practical  repentance  which  reforms  the 
heart  and  enables  man  to  do  the  will  of  wisdom." 

She  does  not  seem  to  have  the  least  notion  that  this 
last  is  exactly  what  the  Catholic  Church  means,  and 
always    has    meant,    by    repentance    and    atonement. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  y 

Union  with  God,  after  estrangement  from  Him ;  this 
is  precisely  what  the  Church  understands  to  be  pro- 
duced or  caused  by  the  atonement  of  Christ,  and  by 
His  grace  in  our  souls  which  that  atonement  procures 
for  us,  when  accepted  by  faith  in  it,  and  by  true  re- 
pentance and  the  firm  purpose  to  abandon,  by  that 
grace,  the  sin  which  separates  us  from  Him.  She 
imagines  that,  according  to  us,  the  sinner  is  sorry  for 
his  sin,  just  as  he  might  be  sorry  for  having  caught 
the  smallpox,  but  goes  on  with  it  just  the  same ;  that 
his  repentance  is  not  real  and  practical ;  as  she  plainly 
enough  says,  in  the  words  of  hers,  quoted  above. 

She  is  quite  right  in  saying  that  ''  if  living  in  dis.- 
obedience  to  Him,  we  ought  to  feel  no  security,  al- 
though God  is  good."  But  this  is  far  from  being 
an  original  idea  with  her,  for  it  is  what  we  keep  con- 
tinually saying  to  all  our  Catholic  people,  and  is  just 
what  they  themselves  thoroughly  believe. 

''  Thou  shalt  call  His  name  Jesus;  for  He  shall 
save  His  people  from  their  sins."  Not  merely  from 
the  punishment  which  their  sins  deserve ;  but  from 
the  sins  themselves.  That  is  the  real  genuine  Christian 
teaching,  and  always  has  been. 

But  the  Church  does  not  hold  or  teach  that  this 
utter  and  complete  freedom  from  sin  is  successfully 
accomplished,  always  and  in  the  smallest  matters,  even 
by  the  best  Christian,  except  by  a  very  special  grace 
and  help  from  God.  We  do  not  believe  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  herself  accomplished  it,  and  think  that  there  is 
pretty  good  evidence  that  she  did  not ;  and  that  is  not 
making  any  serious  charge  against  her.  But  even  if 
her  followers  choose  to  imagine  that  such  was  the 
case,  to  claim  this  for  every  genuine  "  Christian 
Scientist "  would  involve  a  great  strain,  even  on  their 


8  The  Truth  About  Chrisfiau  Science 

credulity.  But  everyone,  centuries  before  Mrs.  Eddy 
was  born,  acknowledged  that  to  live  in  this  way  is 
the  ideal  and  aim  of  true  religion,  and  one  theoreti- 
cally in  the  reach  of  all  of  us.  This  is  simply  the 
old-fashioned  "  Christian  Science  "  known  to  Chris- 
tians in  general ;    not  any  new  discovery  of  hers. 

Though  having  correct  and  normal  views  in  this 
respect,  as  just  described,  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  "  Chris- 
tian Science  "  of  course  go  astray  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  atonement  in  other  important  matters.  Indeed, 
they  cannot  help  doing  so,  as  they  fail  to  recognize 
the  great  fact  on  which  our  redemption,  properly  so- 
called,  rests;  that  is  to  say,  that  of  original  sin. 
This  is,  in  great  measure,  due  to  her  ignorance  of 
anything  but  the  exaggeration  of  this  fact  often 
taught  in  Protestant  theology.  But  this  matter  is 
also  connected  with  other  parts  of  her  scheme,  and 
cannot  well  be  discussed  till  later  on  in  our  ex- 
amination of  it. 

In  common  with  others.  Unitarians  for  example, 
she  is  driven  by  this  ignorance  to  confine  herself  to 
a  very  inadequate  view  of  the  work  accomplished  by 
our  Divine  Lord.  "  The  efficacy  of  the  crucifixion 
she  says,  "  lay  in  the  practical  affection  and  good- 
ness it  demonstrated  for  mankind."  It  is,  of  course, 
quite  true  that  it  has  immense  efficacy  in  that  way, 
and  this  is  quite  generally  recognized  by  all  Chris- 
tians, and  by  none  more  than  by  the  Catholic  Church. 
Our -devotions  largely  rest  on  this,  and  are  emphasized 
by  us  continually,  particularly  in  those  to  the  Sacred 
Heart  and  the  Precious  Blood.  But  it  will  not  do 
to  confine  religion  entirely  to  this.  It  is  a  charac- 
teristic of  all  heresies,  and  of  none  more  than  this 
particular  one,  to  make  special  capital  of  some  par- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  9 

ticular  points,  and  to  ignore  everything  else  which 
does  not  seem  to  fit  in  with  them,  and  of  whiclt  they 
would  hide  the  evidence,  as  far  as  possible.  There 
is  a  notable  instance  of  this  in  the  very  paragraph 
from  which  the  words  just  quoted  are  taken.  "  The 
truth,"  Mrs.  Eddy  goes  on  to  say,  "  had  been  lived 
among  men,  but  until  they  saw  that  it  enabled  their 
Master  to  triumph  over  the  grave.  His  own  disciples 
would  not  admit  such  an  event  to  be  possible." 

We  must  stop  for  a  moment  just  here  to  note  the 
utter  confusion  of  thought  into  which  she  falls.  ''  The 
efficacy  of  the  crucifixion,"  she  has  just  told  us,  "  lay 
in  practical  affection  and  goodness."  Now  she  makes 
it  consist  in  truth.  But  "  affection  and  goodness " 
are  not  synonyms  for  truth.  Of  course  goodness  con- 
sists partially,  but  only  partially,  in  truth  ;  but  af- 
fection has  no  special  relation  to  it.  However,  let 
that  pass.  She  seems  to  mean  that  the  disciples  saw 
that  affection  and  goodness,  rather  than  truth,  "  en- 
abled their  ^Master  to  triumph  over  the  grave."  The 
natural  thing  for  them  to  see  in  this  triumph  was 
power,  rather  than  affection  or  goodness.  But  those 
determined  on  some  particular  line  see  only  what  they 
want  to  see.  So  she  goes  on,  it  suiting  her  purpose 
that  the  disciples  should  see  only  what  will  help  that 
purpose  along.  '*  After  the  resurrection,"  she  pro- 
ceeds, "  soon  the  unbelieving  Thomas  was  forced  to 
acknowledge  how  complete  was  the  great  proof  of 
Truth  and  Love."  Now  she  lugs  in  Truth  again,  as 
if  it  was  the  same  as  Love.  The  actual  fact,  how- 
ever, which  impressed  St.  Thomas  evidently  had  no 
particular  connection  with  either  Truth  or  Love.  He 
recognized,  of  course,  by  the  event,  that  Our  Lord 
had  told  the  truth  in  saying  that  He  would  rise  from 


10  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

the  dead ;  but  what  carried  conviction  to  him  was 
that  He  was  able,  in  fact,  to  verify  His  words.  What 
St.  Thomas  actually  said  was,  simply,  ''  My  Lord 
and  my  God!  "  This  was  not  a  mere  ejaculation;  it 
evidently  meant,  "  My  Lord  must  indeed  have  been 
God  to  be  able  to  do  this  stupendous  thing." 

But  this  would  not  suit  Mrs.  Eddy.  She  does  not 
believe  that  Our  Lord  was  really  and  truly  God,  any 
more  than  that  she  is  so  herself.  There  is  no  need, 
in  her  system,  for  Him  to  be  so.  According  to  it, 
He  is  to  be  merely  a  great  Teacher  of  her  Christian 
or  Eddian  *'  science,"  who  was  enlightened  in  it  by 
the  Deity,  just  in  the  same  way  as  she  is  herself. 
Of  course,  for  her  own  credit  and  reputation.  His 
teaching  must  not  differ  from  hers. 

She  goes  on  to  say,  "  The  spiritual  essence  of 
blood  is  sacrifice."  If  she  had  said  "  meaning "  in- 
stead of  "  essence,"  she  would  have  been  more  cor- 
rect. "  The  efficacy  of  Jesus'  spiritual  offering,"  she 
continues,  *'  is  infinitely  greater  than  can  be  ex- 
pressed by  our  sense  of  human  blood."  Now,  you 
see,  she  drops  the  idea  of  sacrifice,  for  the  word 
"  offering "  with  her  has  no  such  sense.  His  Blood 
now,  with  her,  no  longer  retains  any  meaning  of 
sacrifice,  but  simply  becomes  the  blood  of  His  or- 
dinary life.  "  The  material  blood  of  Jesus,"  she  tells 
us,  "  was  no  more  efficacious  to  cleanse  from  sin  when 
it  was  shed  upon  *the  accursed  tree,'  than  when  it 
was  flowing  in  His  veins  as  He  went  daily  about  His 
Father's  business.  His  true  flesh  and  blood  were  His 
Life,  and  they  truly  eat  His  flesh  and  drink  His  blood 
who  partake  of  that  divine  Life." 

There  is  a  partial  truth  in  this,  wdiich  is  recognized 
by   the   Catholic   Church,   and   indeed   by   Christians 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  ii 

generally,  especially  when  treating  of  the  Holy 
Eucharist.  The  idea  is  not  at  all  new  to  any  of  us. 
In  that  great  Sacrament,  and  at  other  times  also,  we 
are  not  partaking  of  the  dead  flesh  of  Jesus,  or  of 
His  blood  separated  from  it,  but  of  Christ  Himself 
living,  in  His  Body  and  Blood,  in  His  Soul  .and  Di- 
vinity. All  this  we  receive,,  as  the  Catholic  catechism 
teaches  even  our  children,  when  we  receive  Holy  Com- 
munion, even  only  in  the  form  of  bread.  We  are 
partaking  of  the  life  of  Christ,  even  of  His  Divine 
Life,  If  Mrs.  Eddy  had  not  been  so  ignorant  about 
Catholic  doctrine  or  practice,  she  would  hardly  have 
given  this  out  as  if  it  were  her  own  discovery.  The 
chief  motive  or  reason  why  we  receive  Communion  at 
all,  is  because  it  is  the  Food  of  the  Divine  Life  in  us. 
But  besides  there  is  another  motive,  which  is  given 
by  our  Blessed  Lord  Himself  in  the  Gospels,  and  even 
more  explicitly  by  St.  Paul  writing  to  the  Corin- 
thians, "  As  often,"  he  says,  "  as  ye  eat  this  bread, 
and  drink  this  cup,  ye  do  shew  the  Lord's  death  till 
He  come"  (i  Cor.  xi.  26).  (Again  we  quote  from 
the  Protestant  version,  as  being  familiar  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  followers.) 

How  do  ''  we  show  "  the  Lord's  death  by  it?  Evi- 
dently, according  to  the  teaching  of  the  Church  from 
the  beginning,  by  the  separate  representation  of  His 
Body  and  Blood.  "  Christ,  rising  again  from  the 
dead,  dietb  now  no  more ;  death  shall  no  more  have 
dominion  over  Him"  (Rom.  vi.  9).  His  Body  and 
Blood  are  now  and  forever  united.  But  it  is  of  the 
highest  importance  for  us  to  remember  and  com- 
memorate the  fact  that  they  wtve  once  separated  on 
the  Cross,  and  that  all  the  Divine  Life  which  we 
have  is  due  to  this. 


12  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

Mrs.  Eddy  assumes  that  we  all  have  a  right  to  this 
Divine  Life,  and  that  all  that  we  need  is  to  have  it 
shown  to  us.  According  to  her,  "  this  Divine  Prin- 
ciple heals  the  sick,  casts  out  error,  and  triumphs 
over  death  ;  "  and  all  that  we  have  to  do  is  to  recog- 
nize this  fact,  as  He  did.  In  her  view,  He  only  helps 
us  to  do  so  by  His  example;  He  does  not  bring  the 
Divine  Life  to  us  in  any  way  except  by  showing 
where  it  is  to  be  found.  As  she  goes  on  to  say,  He 
simply  *'  presented  the  ideal  of  God,  better  than  could 
any  man  whose  origin  was  less  spiritual ;  "  perhaps 
a  little  better,  but  not  much,  than  Mrs.  Eddy  her- 
self could. 

But  that  this  Divine  Life  is  offered  to  us  by  virtue 
of  any  thing  that  He  has  done,  she  of  course  does 
not  admit.  She  has  no  idea  that  the  Atonement,  ac- 
cording to  genuine  Christian  doctrine,  has  anything 
to  do  with  this.  All  that  she  knows  about  it  is  an 
incomplete  statement  of  it. 

''  Does  erudite  theology,"  she  asks,  "  regard  the 
crucifixion  of  Jesus  chiefly  as  providing  a  ready  par- 
don for  all  sinners  who  ask  for  it  and  are  willing  to 
be  forgiven?  "  We  hardly  know  of  any  theology, 
"  erudite  "  or  not,  which  goes  on  this  idea.  Almost 
all  actual  Christian  theology  requires  more  than  this. 
But  true  theology  requires  that  the  sinner  should  have 
much  more  than  simply  be  "  willing  to  be  forgiven." 
It  teaches  that  he  must  really  repent  of  his  sin,  which 
means  that  he  must  abandon  it ;  knowing  that  by 
means  of  the  Precious  Blood  of  Christ,  shed  for  him, 
he  has  the  grace  and  strength  to  enable  him  to  do  so. 
But  poor  Mrs.  Eddy  has  no  idea  of  "  erudite  "  Chris- 
tian doctrine  except  that  it  holds  that  the  sinner  must 
go   on   sinning,   but   be   forgiven — or   more  properly 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         13 

speaking,  excused — for  his  sin,  because  Christ  has 
taken  on  Himself  the  punishment  due  to  it. 

Her  alternative  for  this  idea  is,  as  she  frankly  seems 
to  confess,  the  spiritualistic  one;  which  does  not  re- 
gard the  Crucifixion  as  in  any  way  important,  but 
which  takes  the  Resurrection  as  a  proof  "that  spirits 
can  return  to  earth ;  "  or  rather,  as  she  means  to  say, 
that  the  spirit  can  survive  bodily  death.  Really,  of 
course,  it  proves  much  more  than  this ;  but  at  present, 
in  the  general  wreck  of  faith  outside  the  Church,  that 
seems  a  great  deal  to  many.  Besides  these  two 
ideas,  she  seems  to  have  no  idea  of  the  existence 
of  any  other  concerning  the  Death  of  our  Blessed 
Lord.  "  We  must  differ  from  them  both,"  she  says. 
These  two  being  discarded  as  insuf¥icient,  she  con- 
siders that  hers  is  established. 

The  truisms  which  she  often  triumphantly  brings 
out  are  really  quite  pathetic.  For  instance,  a  little 
further  on,  she  remarks :  "  Implicit  faith  in  the 
Teacher  and  all  the  emotional  love  we  can  bestow  on 
Him,  will  never  alone  make  us  imitators  of  Him." 
Did  ever  anyone  seriously  allege  that  they  would? 
"  We  must  go  and  jdo  likewise,"  she  sagely  remarks, 
as  if  the  idea  were  quite  original ;  whereas  it  is  es- 
sential to  Christianity,  and  always  has  been.  "  Be 
ye  therefore  followers  of  God,  as  most  dear  chil- 
dren," says  St.  Paul  (Eph.  v.  i),  and  he  is  continually 
urging  this. 

The  remainder  of  this  chapter  is,  like  the  whole 
body  of  the  book,  mainly  composed  of  statements, 
more  or  less  vague,  which  everybody  acknowledges, 
or  of  others  which  have  no  precise  meaning  at  all. 
It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  go  over  them  all; 
we  must  be  content  to   show  up   some   samples  of 


14         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

them.  One  notable  example  occurs  shortly  after  those 
which  have  been  quoted,  and  is  as  follows :  "  There 
is  a  tradition,"  she  tells  us,  "  that  Publius  Lentulus 
wrote  to  the  authorities  at  Rome:  The  disciples  of 
Jesus  believe  Him  the  Son  of  God.  Those  instructed 
in  Christian  Science  have  reached  the  glorious  per- 
ception that  God  is  the  only  author  of  man."  She 
seems  to  imagine  that  what  was  meant  by  the  dis- 
ciples, in  calling  Jesus  the  Son  of  God,  was  that  He 
was  the  creation  of  God,  whereas  people  in  general 
were  created  by  somebody  else.  To  this  she  opposes 
the  "  glorious  perception  "  that  every  human  being, 
as  well  as  Himself,  had  God  for  his  author  (or 
creator).  We  had  an  idea  that  everyone  who  believes 
in  God  as  the  Creator  of  all,  as  the  first  article  of 
the  Christian  Creed  states,  had  this  "  glorious  percep- 
tion "  as  fully  as  any  "  Christian  Scientist."  It  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  new  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  before  she 
got  up  her  "  science." 

"  The  \'irgin-mother,"  she  goes  on  to  say,  "  con- 
ceived this  idea  of  God,  and  gave  to  her  ideal  the 
name  of  Jesus."  We  fancied,  in  our  ignorance  of 
*'  Science,"  that  Jesus  really  existed,  and  was  not  a 
mere  "  ideal." 

Of  course,  in  fact,  what  was  understood  by  calling 
Jesus  the  Son  of  God,  in  the  minds  of  the  first  Chris- 
tians and  in  those  of  the  immense  majority  of  all 
their  followers,  was  that  He  actually  had  the  same 
Divine  Nature  as  His  Father;  that  He  was  really 
and  truly  God,  in  the  most  absolute  and  complete 
sense;  that  He  was  the  Uncreated,  and  in  His  Di- 
vine Nature  not  a  creation  of  God  at  all.  The  Arians, 
in  order  to  avoid  the  ineffable  mystery  of  this,  held 
that  His   Nature   was   only   similar   to   that   of   the 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  15 

Father,  but  not  really  precisely  identical  with  it ;  that 
He  held  a  kind  of  intermediate  place  between  God 
and  the  creation,  and  was  a  means  through  which 
creation  was  accomplished.  But  they  would  not  ad- 
mit that  His  Being  was,  like  that  of  the  Father,  from 
eternity ;  so  that  after  all  it  followed  that  however 
perfect  His  likeness  to  God  might  be  in  other  ways, 
it  failed  in  that  point.  The  words  of  St.  Paul,  de- 
scribing Him  as  "  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the 
first-born  of  every  creature"  (Col.  i.  15),  were  un- 
derstood by  them  to  mean,  not  ''  horn  before  any- 
thing was  created,  but  simply  the  first  of  all  creatures 
to  be  created."  They  had,  when  pressed,  to  ac- 
knowledge that  they  regarded  Him,  though  stand- 
ing, as  it  were,  on  a  different  plane  from  other  crea- 
tures, and  existing  before  any  other,  and  an  agent 
in  the  creation  of  others,  to  be  really  Himself  a  crea- 
tion as  well  as  they. 

But  of  course  Mrs.  Eddy  makes  no  such  distinction 
as  the  Arians  endeavored  to  make.  For  her,  He  was 
simply  a  creature  like  any  other;  God  was  His 
"  author  " — whatever  that  may  mean — and  the  sur- 
prising discovery  which  she  makes  is  that  God  is 
also  the  only  "  author  "  of  all  men. 

She  seems  to  imagine  that  the  world,  before  she  came 
to  enlighten  it,  regarded  matter  as  something  quite  in- 
dependent of  God,  and  that  "  its  order  of  generation  " 
was  something  which  was  believed  to  work  of  its 
own  energy,  not  coming  from  God  in  any  way.  For 
she  says  in  her  next  paragraph :  "  This  illumination 
of  Mary's  spiritual  sense  put  to  silence  material  law 
and  its  order  of  generation,  and  brought  forth  her 
child  by  the  revelation  of  Truth,  demonstrating  God 
as  the  Father  of  men." 


i6         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

As  if,  forsooth,  the  ineffable  mystery  of  the  In- 
carnation only  showed  that  a  human  child  could  be 
produced  without  the  regular  "  order  of  generation ;  " 
that  ''  material  law  "  could  not  prevail  against  Him 
Who  established  it.  And  as  if  this,  which  everyone 
believes  who  believes  in  God  at  all,  proved  that  there 
is  no  such  fact  as  the  laws  of  matter,  which  are  es- 
tablished by  Him,  and,  indeed,  that  there  is  no  actual 
existence  of  matter.  That  is  what  she  seems  to 
mean  by  the  sentence  immediately  following  the  one 
just  quoted,  which  is  as  follows:  "The  Holy  Ghost, 
or  divine  Spirit,  overshadowed  the  pure  sense  of  the 
^^irgin-mother  with  the  full  recognition  that  being 
is  Spirit."  Which  means,  if  it  has  any  meaning,  that 
there  is  no  reality  except  Spirit;  and  we  may  rightly 
assume  that  it  does  mean  this,  for  this  is  one  of  the 
absurd  points — indeed  a  fundamental  one — of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  "  Science." 

She  proceeds,  however,  with  the  following  state- 
ment :  "  Man,  as  the  offspring  of  God,  as  the  idea  of 
Spirit,  is  the  immortal  evidence  that  Spirit  is  har- 
monious and  man  eternal."  If  this  has  any  meaning, 
it  is  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  creation  at  all ; 
that  God  cannot  create  anything  whatever.  The  idea 
of  man,  in  the  mind  of  God,  is  of  course  eternal ;  but 
Mrs.  Eddy  makes  no  difference  between  this  eternal 
idea,  and  its  existence,  in  time,  as  an  actual  fact. 
According  to  this  there  would  be  no  existence  of  man, 
even  as  spirit,  except  as  the  Spirit  of  God.  Mrs. 
Eddy  protests,  now  and  then,  against  pantheism; 
but  here  it  is  pure  and  simple.  Not  only,  according 
to  this,  is  there  no  reality  except  spirit;  but  there 
is  no  spirit  except  that  of  God. 

The  one  idea  that  nothing  exists  except  spirit,  and 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  17 

which  she  really  carried  to  pantheism,  comes  out 
more  and  more  clearly,  if  anything  can  be  said  to  be 
clear,  in  her  mind.  She  goes  on,  in  her  next  utter- 
ances, to  reduce  the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist,  as  well 
as  everything  else,  entirely  to  this.  Its  "  true  sense," 
she  says,  "  is  spiritually  lost,  if  the  sacrament  is  con- 
fined to  the  use  of  bread  and  wine."  This  is  in  a 
way,  true ;  but,  in  fact,  no  one,  even  among  Prot- 
estants, does  so  confine  it.  And  there  is  no  need  to 
say  what  the  Catholic  Church  holds  about  it.  But 
Mrs.  Eddy  considers  that  the  use  of  bread  and  wine 
was  entirely  a  sort  of  "  concession  to  matter,"  as  she 
calls  it,  and,  in  her  judgment,  rather  a  weak  one.  She 
reduces  the  Bread  which  came  down  from  heaven  to 
the  "  great  truth  of  spiritual  being,  healing  the  sick 
and  casting  out  error ;  "  as  if  this  truth,  admitted  by 
all  who  are  not  materialists,  was  utterly  unheard  of 
by  Christians.  This,  according  to  her,  was  all  that 
He  had  to  give  them ;  but  they  knew  it  perfectly 
well  before.  They  knew  that  spirit  really  existed; 
but  they  did  not  know,  and  neither  did  any  other 
sensible  person,  that  its  mere  existence  heals  the  sick 
or  casts  out  errors.  And  there  is  not  the  slightest 
trace  in  any  records  which  we  have  that  Our  Lord 
made  on  this  occasion,  or  on  any  other,  any  attempts 
to  tell  them  anything  of  the  kind.  Mrs.  Eddy,  how- 
ever, asserts  that  He  "  had  explained  it  all  before." 
Her  followers  are  expected,  of  course,  to  take  her 
word  for  this ;  but  there  is  nobody  else's  word  for 
it.  "  Now,"  she  says,  "  this  bread,"  that  is  to  say 
this  well-known  and  undoubted  truth,  which  there  was 
no  need  for  Our  Lord,  or  for  anyone  else,  to  explain, 
"  was  feeding  and  sustaining  them."  And  she  actually 
pretends  that  when  we  are  told  that  the  disciples  bore 


i8         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

this  "  bread  from  house  to  house  "  (Acts  ii.  46),  it  is 
merely  meant  that  they  "  explained  "  to  the  people 
this  needless  platitude  about  "  spiritual  being." 

The  depth  of  poor  Mrs.  Eddy's  ignorance  about 
the  Catholic  Church  is  quite  phenomenally  shown  in 
this  chapter,  though  it  is  evident  enough  all  through 
her  book.  She  seems  to  have  no  idea  of  its  doctrine 
of  the  Eucharist.  "  Are  all,"  she  says,  ''  who  eat 
bread  and  drink  wine  in  memory  of  Jesus  willing 
truly  to  drink  His  cup,  take  His  cross,  and  leave  all 
for  the  Christ-principle?  Then  why  ascribe  this 
aspirant  to  a  dead  rite,  instead  of  showing,  by  cast- 
ing out  error  and  making  the  body  'holy,  acceptable 
unto  God,'  that  Truth  has  come  to  the  understanding? 
If  Christ,  Truth,  has  come  to  us  in  demonstration, 
no  other  commemoration  is  requisite,  for  demonstra- 
tion is  requisite,  for  demonstration  is  Emmanuel,  or 
God  zvith  us;  and  if  a  friend  be  with  us,  why  need 
we  memorials  of  that  friend  ?  " 

She  seems  to  have  no  notion  that  the  Blessed  Sacra- 
ment is  believed  by  the  immense  majority  of  Chris- 
tians to  be  a  great  deal  more  than  simply  a  memorial. 
It  is  believed  to  be,  not  a  Christ-principle,  but  Christ 
Himself,  really  and  truly  with  us,  with  His  Body, 
Blood,  Soul  and  Divinity;  God  zvith  us,  most  ab- 
solutely and  completely.  As  a  memorial,  it  is  not 
merely  one  of  Himself,  but  of  His  Death  on  the 
Cross,  which  Mrs.  Eddy  regards  as  of  little  impor- 
tance, and  as  a  reminder  that  we  must  be  ready  to 
take  up  our  cross,  so  far  as  He  may  choose  to  give 
it  to  us.  But  Mrs.  Eddy,  by  denying  the  reality  of 
suffering,  is  compelled  to  ignore  this  part  of  the 
matter.  She  asks,  indeed,  if  we  are  willing  to  "  take 
His  cross ; "  but  this  is,  with  her,  merely  a  form  of 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         19 

words.  Taking  any  suffering  on  ourselves  in  imita- 
tion of  Him,  is  not  her  idea  of  the  Christian  life  at 
all.  The  plan  of  her  "  Christian  Science  "  is  to  get 
rid  of  suffering  in  this  world,  as  well  as  in  the  next ; 
or,  in  other  words,  to  regard  it  as  an  "  error." 

She  continues  as  follows :  "  If  all  who  ever  par- 
took of  the  sacrament  had  really  commemorated  the 
sufferings  of  Jesus,  and  drunk  of  His  cup,  they  would 
have  revolutionized  the  world."  This  is  very  true; 
but  it  seems  to  common  sense  that  the  Apostles,  the 
millions  of  Christian  martyrs  in  the  early  days  of 
the  Church,  and  many  also  in  its  whole  history,  ac- 
complished a  good  deal  in  that  way ;  whereas  it  is 
contrary  to  w^hat  may  be  called  the  Eddy-principle, 
to  even  endeavor  to  do  anything  in  that  line.  Many 
of  her  followers,  we  doubt  not,  really  do  suffer  a  good 
deal,  and  have  been  very  patient  in  suffering;  but 
the  less  they  acknowledge  this  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  the 
better ;  for,  on  her  "  principle,"  to  do  so  would  show 
that  they  are  still  entangled  in  "  mortal  error." 

A  little  later  she  again  shows  her  singular  ignor- 
ance of  Christian  doctrine.  She  brings  out  the  fol- 
lowing paragraph,  it  would  certainly  appear,  as  an 
original  idea  with  herself:  "If  the  sinner's  punish- 
ment here  has  been  insufficient  to  reform  him,  the 
good  man's  heaven  would  be  a  hell  to  the  sinner. 
They,  who  know  not  purity  and  affection  by  ex- 
perience, can  never  find  bliss  in  the  blessed  company 
of  Truth  and  Love  simply  through  translation  into 
another  sphere."  This  is,  of  course,  just  ordinary 
Catholic  teaching.  The  sinner  must  be  reformed, 
really  and  interiorly ;  not  merely  have  a  "  mantle  "  of 
the  righteousness  of  Christ  (as  some  Protestants 
would  say)   thrown  over  him,  to  make  it  look  as  if 


20  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

he  were  reformed.  No  good  Christian  imagines  for 
a  moment  that — to  quote  the  words  of  Mrs.  Eddy  a 
little  later — "  the  wicked  can  gloat  over  their  of- 
fences to  the  last  moment,  and  then  be  suddenly  par- 
doned and  pushed  into  heaven."  It  is  true  that  we 
do  hope  that  a  real  conversion  from  sin  may  come,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  at  the  last  moment ;  but  "  push- 
ing "  an  unrepentant  sinner  "  into  heaven  "  is  some- 
thing quite  unheard  of  with  us. 

It  is,  however,  by  no  means  true,  that  ''  to  remit  the 
penalty  due  for  sin "  (when  it  is  really  repented) 
"  would  be  for  Truth  to  pardon  error."  Usually,  in 
the  case  of  post-baptismal  sin,  the  penalty  is  not 
entirely  remitted,  even  to  the  truly  repentant,  but,  to 
some  extent,  remains  for  purgatory.  But  it  may  be 
remitted,  even  in  this  life.  If  it  never  could  be  re- 
mitted at  all  (as  Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to  mean,  but 
probably  really  does  not),  there  would  be  rather  a  poor 
prospect  for  us.  But  we  must  pass  on,  and  not  spend 
too  much  time,  even  on  such  a  matter  as  this.  She 
is  coming,  even  in  this  chapter,  to  her  principal  prac- 
tical error  and  misunderstanding  of  Our  Lord's  words. 
Let  us  take  a  good  look  at  them. 

After  showing,  to  her  own  satisfaction,  that  spirit 
is  everything,  and  matter  merely  an  "  error,"  Mrs. 
Eddy  starts  in  on  what  she  calls  "  the  more  practical 
import "  of  Christ's  career.  "  When,"  she  says,  "  will 
Jesus'  professed  followers  learn  to  emulate  Him  in 
all  His  ways,  and  to  imitate  His  mighty  works? 

'*  Christians  claim  to  be  His  followers,"  she  con- 
tinues, "  but  do  they  follow  Him  in  the  way  that  He 
commanded?  Hear  these  imperative  commands:  'Be 
ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in 
Jieaven  is  perfect!     Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         21 

preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature!  Heal  the  sick!' " 
Then  she  asks :  "  Why  has  this  Christian  demand 
so  little  inspiration  to  stir  mankind  to  Christian  ef- 
fort? "  And  she  answers :  ''  Because  men  are  assured 
that  this  command  was  intended  only  for  a  particular 
period  and  for  a  select  number  of  followers."  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  the  great  majority  of  Chris- 
tians have  never  been  assured,  and  never  have  be- 
lieved, anything  of  the  kind.  Here,  as  so  often  else- 
where, Mrs.  Eddy  shows  her  absolute  ignorance  of 
Catholic  doctrine,  which  is,  as  just  rem.arked,  that  of 
the  great  majority  of  Christians.  Catholics  are  never 
taught  that  the  *'  age  of  miracles  has  passed,"  or  that 
the  working  of  them  was  restricted  to  any  select  num- 
ber of  Christ's  followers.  We  all  know  that  miracles 
are  continually  worked  in  the  Church;  but  we  also 
know  that  the  working  of  really  Divine  miracles  de- 
pends on  an  extraordinary  intensity  of  faith,  which 
usually  is  not  given  without  a  special  inspiration ; 
and  not,  in  general,  except  to  persons  whose  other  vir- 
tues are  also  extraordinary ;  that  is  to  say,  to  those 
whom  we  call  the  Saints.  And,  furthermore,  we 
know  that  even  these  do  not  work  them  simply  by 
any  power  residing  in  themselves,  but  by  a  special 
power  given  for  the  occasion  by  our  Divine  Lord 
Himself. 

In  the  first  recorded  miracle  of  healing  by  the 
Apostles,  namely,  that  of  the  cure  of  the  lame  man  at 
the  Beautiful  Gate,  St.  Peter  said  to  those  who  won- 
dered at  it :  "  Ye  men  of  Israel,  why  wonder  you  at 
this?  or  why  look  you  on  us,  as  if  by  our  strength 
or  power  we  had  made  this  man  to  walk?  "  For  in 
the  working  of  it,  he  had  said :  "  In  the  name  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth,  arise  and  walk."    If  he  had 


22  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

had  any  power  merely  of  his  own  for  such  things, 
he  would  have  worked  them  on  every  possible  occa- 
sion. But  the  power  was  reserved  for  the  times  at 
which,  in  the  Infinite  Wisdom  of  God,  it  would  con- 
tribute most  effectually  to  His  glory. 

Yes,  Our  Lord  had  indeed  said  of  them  that  be- 
lieve :  ''  In  My  name  they  shall  cast  out  devils :  they 
shall  speak  with  new  tongues.  They  shall  take  up 
serpents ;  and  if  they  shall  drink  any  deadly  thing, 
it  shall  not  hurt  them ;  they  shall  lay  their  hands 
upon  the  sick,  and  they  shall  recover"  (Mark  xvi.  17, 
18).  But  He  did  not  promise  to  impart  to  them  who 
believe  ''  Christian  Science,"  by  virtue  of  which  they 
should  learn  to  do  on  all  occasions  the  same  things 
which  He  Himself  had  only  done  now  and  then.  He 
would  Himself  show  them  the  proper  times  at  which 
this  Divine  power  was  to  be  used. 

And  it  was  not,  as  the  passage  just  quoted  shows, 
to  be  restricted  to  healing  the  sick.  But  Mrs.  Eddy 
chooses  to  apply  it  only  to  this.  For  example,  we 
do  not  hear  that  she  or  any  of  her  followers  have 
been  in  the  habit  of  "  taking  up  serpents "  or  of 
"  drinking  any  deadly  thing."  She  only  had  made  up 
her  mind  that  sickness  is  some  kind  of  "  error,"  quite 
out  of  the  order  of  Divine  Providence,  and  even  that, 
in  fact,  it  has  no  existence.  So  that  all  that  we  have 
to  do  is  to  look  it  straight  in  the  eye,  and  it  will 
disappear.  "  Healing  the  sick,"  with  her,  is  simply 
persuading  them,  or  their  persuading  themselves,  that 
they  are  not  sick  at  all ;  and  that  ought  to  be  al- 
ways possible.  They  are  in  some  kind  of  delusion 
about  it,  which  must  be  removed. 

The  fact  is,  that  it  is  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  who  is 
deluded.    The  great  problem  of  the  origin  of  evil  has. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         23 

perhaps  vaguely,  presented  itself  to  her,  and  she 
solves  it  by  deciding-  that  there  is  not  any  such  prob- 
lem. She  is  quite  right  in  holding  that  there  ought 
not  to  be  any  such  problem.  But  unfortunately,  the 
evidence  is  too  plain  that,  in  fact  there  is,  and  almost 
everyone  except  herself  has  common  sense  enough  to 
recognize  this  fact.  It  comes  from  another  great  fact, 
not  fully  comprehensible  to  us,  that  Almighty  God 
has  chosen  to  leave  to  man  the  perilous  power  of 
free-will ;  the  power  to  disobey  instead  of  obeying ; 
to  take  evil  rather  than  good.  This  is  the  source 
of  the  original  sin  with  which  we  are  all  affected ; 
and  that  is  the  cause  of  all  our  other  evils.  But  w^e 
shall  have  to  leave  further  discussion  of  this  mat- 
ter to  the  later  portions  of  this  book. 

But  to  go  on  with  the  chapter  now  in  hand.  Of 
course  it  contains  her  usual  mixture  of  ambiguous 
sentences,  truisms  and  errors.  We  shall  have  to 
mainly  notice  the  latter.  Quite  an  important  one 
soon  occurs,  as  follows : 

*'  The  educated  belief,"  she  says,  "  that  Soul  is  in 
the  body,  causes  mortals  to  regard  death  as  a  friend, 
as  a  stepping-stone  out  of  mortality  into  immor- 
tality and  bliss.  The  Bible  calls  death  an  enemy,  and 
Jesus  overcame  death  and  the  grave  instead  of  yield- 
ing to  them." 

This  seems  to  mean  that  Our  Lord  did  not  really 
die ;  that  His  death  was  simply  a  pretense.  This 
error  got  some  hold  in  the  early  Christian  times. 
It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  it  is  contradicted  by 
what  may  be  called  innumerable  passages  of  the  New 
Testament ;  and  the  actual  death  of  Christ  is  the  most 
fundamental  article  of  the  Christian  faith.  By 
"  death "   is  properly   meant  the   separation  of   soul 


24  Tlic  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

and  body.  But  according  to  the  Eddy  gospel,  it 
would  not  do  for  Our  Lord  to  die.  He  must  "  over- 
come "  death  ;  that  is  to  say,  according  to  this  gos- 
pel He  must,  if  we  may  say  so,  dodge  it.  "  To  Him," 
she  tells  us,  "  death  was  not  the  threshold  over  which 
He  must  pass  into  living  glory."  It  is,  perhaps,  pos- 
sible that  Mrs.  Eddy  had  an  idea  that  she  would 
be  able  to  do  as  she  thought  that  He  had  done.  It 
seems  to  follow  that  if  disease  is  only  an  "  error," 
death  should  also  be  one,  and  that  this  ought  to  be 
proved  in  her  case ;  though  other  Christian  Scientists 
might  not  have  "  science "  enough  to  accomplish 
this,  she  might  prove  to  be  the  needed  "exception. 
At  any  rate,  some  of  her  disciples  seem  to  have  en- 
tertained this  hope.     But  to  proceed. 

''  Noiv,"  cried  the  apostle,  she  tells  us,  "  is  the  ac- 
cepted time,  behold,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation; 
meaning,  not  that  now  men  must  prepare  for  a  fu- 
ture world  salvation  or  safety,  but  that  now  is  the 
time  to  experience  that  salvation  in  spirit  and  in 
life." 

Here,  again,  she  fails  to  show  any  knowledge  of 
Christian  doctrine  except  of  the  kind  in  which  she 
was  brought  up.  The  Catholic — though  we  do  not  be- 
lieve that  this  is  the  meaning  of  these  words  of  St. 
Paul — knows  well  that  now  is,  no  doubt,  the  time  for 
him  to  experience  that  salvation.  Anyone  whose  sins 
have  been  truly  forgiven,  and  who  is  in  the  state  of 
grace,  does  "  experience  "  it  as  truly,  thought  not  so 
completely,  as  those  who  are  actually  in  heaven.  The 
chief  trouble  is  that  he  may  fall  from  that  state  of 
grace. 

But  it  is  not  as  yet  the  time  for  anyone  still  in  this 
world,  as  she  would  maintain,  "  for  so-called  material 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         25 

pains  and  material  pleasures  to  pass  away."  She 
says  it  is,  '''  for  both  are  unreal,  because  impossible  in 
Science."  Here  she  contradicts  herself.  "  Jesus,"  she 
says,  "  experienced  few  of  the  pleasures  of  the  phys- 
ical senses."  But  she  does  not  deny  that  He  ex- 
perienced some  of  them.  As  to  material  pains,  she 
goes  on  to  say,  that  "His  sufferings  were  the  fruits 
of  other  people's  sins,  not  of  His  own."  Of  course 
we  all  admit  that;  but  that  did  not  make  them  any 
the  less  real. 

It  was  not,  then,  the  time  in  His  case,  any  more 
than  in  ours,  for  material  pains  and  material  pleasures 
to  pass  away.  Perhaps,  however,  He  was  not  a  com- 
plete Scientist,  or  quite  up  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  level.  She 
tries  to  explain  by  saying,  ''  The  eternal  Christ,  His 
spiritual  self-hood,  never  suffered."  If  that  means 
anything,  it  means  that  His  Divine  Nature  never  suf- 
fered. This  of  course  all  of  those  wdio  believe  in 
His  true  Divinity,  believe  firmly,  but  IMrs.  Eddy  does 
not  seem  to  be  one  of  them.  She  is  in  fact  a  Uni- 
tarian. 

Poor  Mrs.  Eddy !  She  is  stumbling,  and  tripping 
herself  up  all  the  time. 

She  now  proceeds  to  ask,  as  it  were,  triumphantly: 
"  V\\\o  v/ill  stop  the  practice  of  sin,  as  long  as  he 
believes  in  the  pleasures  of  sin?"  We  had  a  notion 
that  this  was  exactly  what  all  good  Christians  were 
habitually  doing.  If  Airs.  Eddy  has  not  met  any  such, 
we  can  only  say  that  her  acquaintance  has  been  singu- 
larly unfortunate;  and  it  does  not  speak  very  well, 
indeed,  for  herself.  For  she  was  not  always  a 
"  Scientist,"  and  must,  for  a  considerable  time,  have 
believed,  like  every  person  of  common  sense,  that  there 
are  ''  pleasures  of  sin."    If  she  means  "  as  long  as  he 


26  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

voluntarily  indulges  in  the  pleasures  of  sin,"  no  one 
could  find  fault  with  her  question,  just  quoted.  But 
she  does  not  mean  this.  For  she  goes  on  to  say : 
''  When  mortals  once  admit  that  evil  confers  no 
pleasure,  they  turn  from  it ;  "  implying,  of  course,  the 
same  as  in  her  question,  that  they  don't  turn  from  it 
until  they  do  admit  this.  "  Remove  error  from 
thought,"  she  says,  "  and  it  will  not  appear  in  effect." 
If  she  had  meant,  "  remove  sin,"  which  she  calls 
"  error,"  from  free  acts  of  the  zvill, ''  and  it  will  not  ap- 
pear in  effect,"  this  would  be,  of  course,  quite  true; 
it  would  be  only  saying  the  same  thing  in  other  words. 
But  she  evidently  does  not  mean  this. 

Then  she  goes  on  with  a  page  or  two  of  her  plati- 
tudes, such  as  this :  "  Our  heavenly  Father,  divine 
Love,  demands  that  men  should  follow  the  example  of 
our  Master  and  His  Apostles,  and  not  merely  worship 
His  personality."  (Or,  as  He  Flimself  puts  it,  "  Why 
call  you  Me,  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the  things  which 
I  say?"  Luke  vl.  46.)  All  of  us,  of  course,  recog- 
nize the  force  of  this;  but  Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to 
imagine  that  until  she  appeared  on  the  scene,  all 
Christians  adhered  to  the  Lutheran  doctrine  that  faith 
alone  justifies  us,  without  works.  But  in  her  system, 
the  healing  of  the  sick,  unfortunately,  stands  on  about 
the  same  plane  as  the  casting  out  of  sin,  which  she 
calls  "  error."  Both  seem  to  her  about  equally  im- 
portant. "  The  proofs  of  Truth,  Life  and  Love,"  she 
says,  '^  which  Jesus  gave  by  casting  out  error  and  heal- 
ing the  sick,  completed  his  earthly  mission."  \n  point 
of  fact,  the  healing  of  the  sick  was  done  by  Him,  not 
merely  as  a  proof  of  "  Truth,  Life  and  Love,"  but 
mainly  to  show  that  He  could  cast  out  sin  also,  as 
well  as  bodily  disease. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         2j 

She  proceeds,  having  thus  put  sickness  and  sin  on 
the  same  level,  to  make  the  following  astonishing  state- 
ment. She  seems  to  admit  that  some  success  has  been 
attained  by  the  Church  in  the  casting  out  of  sin ;  but 
as  to  healing  the  sick,  she  asserts  that  "  in  the  Christian 
Church  the  demonstration  of  healing  was  early  lost, 
about  three  centuries  after  the  crucifixion."  Here 
again  she  simply  follows  her  Protestant  tradition 
about  the  age  of  miracles  having  passed,  being  entirely 
ignorant  of  any  other.  ^But  it  is  quite  safe  to  say  that 
in  the  Catholic  Church  works  of  healing  the  sick,  far 
surpassing  those  which  Mrs.  Eddy  can  claim  for  her- 
self or  her  followers,  are  claimed  as  having  been  done 
through  all  its  history,  and  are  now  being  done  con- 
tinually, as  for  example,  at  Lourdes.  All  this,  how- 
ever, she  either  does  not  know,  or  persistently  ignores. 
This  is  not  the  place  to  go  into  the  proof  of  this  as 
a  fact.  The  records  were  quite  accessible  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  if  she  had  cared  to  read  them. 

Speaking  of  the.  Jews,  she  says,  a  little  further  on : 
"  It  was  enough  for  them  to  believe  in  a  national 
Deity;  but  that  belief,  from  their  time  to  ours,  has 
never  made  a  disciple  who  could  cast  out  evils  and 
heal  the  sick."  What  she  really  means  that  belief  in 
the  Divine  power  has  never  made  a  disciple  who  could 
heal  the  sick;  according  to  her,  one  must  believe  not 
in  the  power  of  the  Almighty  to  heal  us,  but  simply 
believe  that  there  is  nothing  to  be  healed.  And  as 
no  one  from  three  centuries  after  the  Crucifixion  up 
to  the  time  of  "  Science  "  believed  this,  of  course  there 
was  no  one  who  could  heal  the  sick ;  and  there  is  no 
need  to  look  at  any  alleged  facts.  It  is  very  convenient 
to  have  a  theory  which  saves  us  such  lots  of  needless 
trouble. 


28  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

This  delusion  of  hers  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  body  or  matter,  sickness  or  death  is  now  again 
stated  by  her.  And  it  goes,  as  previously,  even  into 
still  more  absurd  statements.  "  The  belief,"  she  says, 
"that  man  has  existence  or  mind  separate  from  God 
is  a  dying  error ;  "  again  the  denial  of  Creation  ;  again 
simple  pantheism.  ''  Sin,  sickness,  and  death,"  she 
tells  us,  ''  had  no  terror  for  Jesus.  Let  men  think 
they  had  killed  the  body !  Afterward  He  would  show 
it  to  them  vmchanged."  In  plain  words,  she  means 
that  His  pretending  to  die  was  simply  a  trick.  The 
Resurrection  was  an  imposture ;  there  never  was  any- 
thing of  the  kind.  Christ  did  not,  in  fact,  rise  from 
the  dead. 

But  St.  Paul  clearly  tells  us :  "  Now  Christ  is  risen 
from  the  dead."  '''  If  Christ  be  not  risen  again,  then 
is  our  preaching  vain,  and  your  faith  is  also  vain," 
And  He  could  not  rise  from  the  dead,  except  by  first 
being  dead";  that  is  by  the  separation  of  His  human 
Soul  and  Body. 

It  has  seemed  well  on  account  of  the  fundamental 
importance  of  this  article  of  the  Christian  Creed,  its 
essential  connection  with  Christianity,  and  the  utter 
denial  of  Christianity  involved  in  so-called  ''  Christian 
Science,"  to  give  a  somewhat  extra  emphasis  to   it. 

Mrs.  Eddy  is  not  content,  however,  with  this  denial, 
but  tries  to  make  St.  Paul  a  partner  in  it.  "  Paul 
writes,"  she  tells,  "  for  if  when  we  were  enemies,  we 
v/ere  reconciled  to  God  by  the  (seeming)  death  of 
His  Son,"  etc.  It  is,  of  course,  only  fair  to  remark 
that  she  puts  "  seeming "  in  parenthesis,  as  above ; 
but  it  makes  the  quotation  all  the  more  impudent  when 
she  confesses  that  it  is  garbled.  What  is  the  use 
of  quoting  the  Apostle  at  all,  if  you  acknowledge  that 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 


29 


he  really  teaches  just  the  reverse  of  what  you  try  to 
put  into  his  mouth  ? 

Then  she  tries  to  make  out  that  because  the  disciples 
at  first  did  not  understand  the  Resurrection,  they 
believed  that  it  was  only  the  ghost  of  their  Lord 
which  they  had  seen.  ''  The  reappearing  of  Jesus," 
she  says,  "  was  not  the  return  of  a  spirit."  Of  course 
they  did  not  think,  except  for  a  moment,  th.at  it  was 
so.  His  own  words,  which  she  quotes — and  apparently 
imagines  that  she  was  the  first  to  understand  them — 
convinced  them  that  it  v/as  His  own  Body  which  they 
saw.  "  He  presented,"  she  informs  us,  "  the  same 
body  that  He  had  before  the  Crucifixion."  No  one 
who  believes  in  the  Resurrection  doubts  this;  but 
no  one,  except  Mrs.  Eddy  and  those  led  astray  by 
her,  regards  it  as  any  proof  that  He  had  never  died. 
The  Christian  faith  of  the  Apostles,  and  which  the 
whole  Church  has  received  from  them,  is  simply  that 
at  the  Crucifixion,  Christ's  Soul  and  Body  were 
separated,  for  that  is  what  death  means;  and  that  at 
the  Resurrection,  the  union  of  them  w^as  restored. 

She  next  goes  on  to  "  explain  away  "  the  Ascension 
as  well,  and  without  the  slightest  proof,  or  even 
shadow  of  reason,  asserts  that  "  it  revealed  unmis- 
takably a  probationary  and  progressive  state  beyond 
the  grave."  The  impudence  of  this  assertion  exceeds 
anything  that  she  has  so  far  been  guilty  of. 

But  something  still  more  astonishing  occurs  on  the 
next  page.  This  is  simply  phenomenal.  Would  any- 
one believe  that  one  calling  herself  a  Christian  could 
write  words  like  these  ?  "  The  disciples'  desertion  of 
their  Master  in  His  last  earthly  struggle  was  punished : 
each  one  came  to  a  violent  death  except  St.  John." 

Is    this    not    almost    incredible?      This    thoroughly 


30  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

worldly-minded  deserter — for  this  is  really  just  what 
she  is — regards  martyrdom,  which  universal  Christian 
belief  has  always  held  to  be  our  highest  crown  and 
glory,  as  a  punishment!  Indeed,  the  whole  of  man- 
kind has  always  accorded  to  those  who  have  died  for 
their  faith,  even  if  it  were  erroneous,  a  certain  amount 
of  respect  and  admiration ;  but  in  the  eyes  of  Mrs. 
Eddy,  they  were  simply  criminals.  The  duty  of  those 
who  have  been  called  on  to  die  for  their  faith,  was, 
according  to  her,  simply  to  deny  it,  as  she  has 
done.  The  important  thing,  the  '*  one  thing  necessary," 
in  her  gospel,  is  to  secure  the  good  things  of  this 
world,  and  let  the  next  take  care  of  itself.  But  He, 
whom  she  calls  '*  the  Master,"  tells  us  in  all  His  gos- 
pels :  "  He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it ;  and  he 
that  loseth  his  life  for  My  sake  shall  find  it "  (Matt. 
X.  39),  and  others  to  the  same  effect.  We  quote  here 
from  the  Protestant  version,  as  being  remarkably  em- 
phatic, though  substantially  the  same  as  our  own. 

But  Mrs.  Eddy's  idea  is  that  Christ's  great  benefit 
to  us  was  to  enable  us  to  keep  our  bodily  health ;  and, 
we  may  say,  our  comfort  and  general  welfare  in  this 
world.  As  to  sacrificing  our  life  itself  for  Christ's 
sake,  why  such  a  thing  could  not  be  thought  of  by  any 
genuine  "  student  of  Christian  Science."  There  would 
be  no  "  science  "  in  anything  like  that. 

She  probably  would  consider  the  experience  of  St. 
John,  in  the  caldron  of  boiling  oil  (of  which  she  does 
not  seem  to  have  heard),  and  which  naturally  would 
have  been  a  violent  death^  as  showing  that  he,  at  least, 
was  a  genuine  ''  Scientist."  He  must  have  said : 
*'  There  is  nothing  in  this  boiling  oil,  it  is  merely  a 
mortal  error."  By  means  of  this  "  science  "  of  his 
he  escaped  his  "  punishment."    Of  course  he  really  was 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         31 

not  one  of  those  who  deserted  the  Master ;  so  prob- 
ably he  did  not  have  to  be  punished.  But  it  must  have 
been  a  disappointment  to  him  not  to  receive  the  crown 
of  martyrdom  which  had  been  given  to  the  rest. 

After  a  page  of  pious  remarks,  not  quite  so  "scien- 
tific "  as  usual,  she  suddenly  bursts  out :  ''  Where  were 
the  seventy  whom  Jesus  sent  forth?  Were  all  con- 
spirators save  eleven?"  She  does  not  seem  to  have 
read  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  that  immediately 
after  the  Ascension,  when  it  came  to  the  question  of 
a  successor  to  Judas,  there  were  about  a  hundred  and 
twenty  disciples  assembled  in  that  upper  room ;  prob- 
ably this  was  about  as  many  as  it  would  conveniently 
hold.  It  may  be  reasonably  and  charitably  supposed 
that  if  the  seventy  were  not  all  there,  they  were  at 
least  well  represented.  Also,  it  does  not  seem  that 
the  seventy  all  lived  in  Jerusalem,  or  had  all  been  told 
to  assemble  there.  This  we  mention  as  an  example 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  slap-dash  style,  somewhat  unworthy, 
perhaps,  of  what  she  put  forth,  and  her  followers 
generally  accept,  as  a  sort  of  inspired  document. 

After  a  while,  she  comes  back,  of  course,  to 
"  science  "  again.  Speaking  of  our  Divine  Lord,  she 
says :  "  His  consummate  example  was  for  the  salva- 
tion of  us  all,  but  only  through  doing  the  works 
which  He  did  and  taught  others  to  do."  That  is  to  say, 
mainly  His  works  to  restore  health ;  but  also  "  to 
demonstrate  His  divine  Principle."  Not  His  Divinity, 
but  His  ''divine  Principle;"  which,  if  the  same  as 
that  of  "  Christian  Science,"  was,  presumably,  that  the 
notion  of  there  being  any  real  need  to  restore  health 
was  only  a  delusion  of  ''  mortal  mind."  And  by  "  sal- 
vation "  she  seems  to  mean  the  curing  us  of  the  false 
idea  that  there  is  anything  at  all   really  the  matter 


32  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

with  us.  It  is  not  quite  clear  how  His  '*  consummate 
example  "  helped  toward  this.  To  the  unhiased  ob- 
server, it  would  seem  to  indicate  that  there  was  a  great 
deal  the  matter.  But,  of  course,  according  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  He  did  not  really  suffer  at  all ;  but  it  is  hard 
to  see  why  He  should  have  pretended  to  do  so.  His 
example  would  demonstrate  the  ''  divine  Principle " 
rather  better,  if  He  had  smiled  at  the  whole  thing,  or 
even  joked  at  it. 

She,  however,  accounts  for  this  by  saying,  a  little 
later,  that  "  at  the  time  Jesus  felt  our  infirmities,  He 
had  not  conquered  all  the  beliefs  of  the  flesh  or  His 
sense  of  material  life,  nor  had  He  risen  to  His  final 
demonstration  of  spiritual  power."  That  is  to  say, 
that  He,  for  the  greater  part  of  His  life,  had  not 
soared  to  the  heights  of  "  Christian,"  or  more  prop- 
erly "  Eddian "  Science,  which  she,  professing  to  be 
His  interpreter,  subsequently  attained.  Why  didn't 
she  call  it  ''Eddian  Science"  at  once?  Of  course,  it 
v/as  to  get  the  shelter  and  prestige  of  His  Name 
for  it.  But  she  really  does  not  seem  to  have  doubted 
that  she  was  altogether  superior  to  Him.  It  is  strange 
how  so  many,  seemingly  pious  people,  can  swallow  this 
blasphemy.  It  is  simply  because  they  have  lost  what 
is  undoubtedly  the  Christian  Faith,  that  Christ  was, 
and  is,  really  and  truly  the  Incarnate  God. 

There  is  not  much  left  in  this  chapter  that  requires 
special  comment.  Of  course,  there  are  any  number 
of  unmeaning  sentences  in  it,  but  how  can  one  com- 
ment on  anything  which  really  has  no  meaning  or 
sense  in  it  to  comment  on?  The  only  definite  idea  in 
it  is  that  there  is  nothing  the  matter  with  mankind 
except  a  want  of  bodily  health,  and  that  this  is  onlv 
apparent,  and  can  easily  be  cured  by  simply  denying 


TJic  Tnitli  About  Christian  Science         33 

that  there  is  any  such  want.  If  we  are  rightly  atoned, 
according  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  that  is  to  say,  made  one  with 
God,  there  wih  be  no  difference  between  Him  and  our- 
selves. As  He,  in  Himself,  is  pure  Spirit,  so  shall 
we  also  be,  and  the  matter  in  us  (or  with  us)  will 
disappear.  Strangely  enough,  however,  she  herself  in- 
sists that  it  remained  in  Our  Lord,  after  His  Resur- 
rection, just  the  same  in  every  way  as  it  was  before. 
The  only  disappearance  of  it,  until  His  Ascension,  was 
W'hen  it  was,  for  a  time,  hid  away  in  the  grave.  In 
Mrs.  Eddy's  own  case,  hovv^ever,  this  has  lasted  a  good 
while ;  and  is  to  be  feared,  even  by  her  own  followers, 
that  it  would  not,  if  examined,  be  found  to  be  in  very 
good  condition.  It  has  been  quite  carefully  concealed. 
It  is  not  even  claimed  that  there  has  been  any  Ascen- 
sion for  it. 

There  is  one  thing,  in  a  general  way,  about  this 
chapter,  which  really  ought  to  be  mentioned.  It  pro- 
fesses to  be  about  "  Eucharist,"  as  well  as  "  Atone- 
ment." But  about  the  former  hardly  anything  seems 
to  be  said.  One  would  think  that  the  words  of  the 
institution  of  this  great  Sacrament  w^ould  have  some 
remarks  made  on  them.  What  did  Our  Lord  mean 
by  saying  "  This  is  My  Body ;  "  "  this  is  My  Blood?  " 
One  would  think  that  the  usual  non-Catholic  explana- 
tion would  at  least  be  alluded  to. 

CHAPTER  III. 

IMarriage. 

It  certainly  does  seem  a  little  strange  to  lug  in  a 
chapter  on  ''  marriage  "  at  such  an  early  stage  of  the 
proceedings.  One  would  expect  something  having  a 
more  immediate  connection  wnth  ]\Irs.  Eddy's  "  scien- 


34  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

tific  "  plan  of  salvation.  For  even  she  herself  does 
not  seem  to  hold  that  marriage,  theoretically,  is  an 
essential  part  of  that  plan,  though  making  rather  a 
point  of  it,  practically,  in  her  own  case.  On  the  whole, 
her  practical  ideas  regarding  it  are  such  as  are  held 
by  all  good  people ;  there  is  not  much,  if  anything, 
really  original  about  them.  But  there  is  one  remark 
which  she  makes  near  the  beginning  which  seems  to 
require  a  little  explanation.  It  is  as  follows :  "  Until 
the  spiritual  creation  is  discerned  intact,  is  appre- 
hended and  understood,  and  His  kingdom  is  come  as 
in  the  vision  of  the  Apocalypse — where  the  corporeal 
sense  of  creation  was  cast  out,  and  its  spiritual  sense 
was  revealed  from  heaven — marriage  will  continue, 
subject  to  such  moral  regulations  as  will  secure  in- 
creasing virtue." 

The  difficulty  about  this  is  that  it  does  not  plainly 
indicate  when  this  discernment,  apprehension  and  un- 
derstanding occurred ;  or,  if  it  has  not  yet  occurred, 
when  it  is  going  to  do  so.  We  had  supposed  that  the 
"  corporeal  sense  of  creation  was  cast  out,  and  its 
spiritual  sense  was  revealed  from  heaven,"  by  Mrs. 
Eddy  herself;  and  that  the  "casting  out"  and  the 
'*  revelation  "  were  quite  accomplished  for  all  Christian 
Scientists,  as  well  as  for  Mrs.  Eddy,  personally.  But 
it  would  appear  that  "  scientists  "  are  still  allowed  to 
marry,  and  do  not  forfeit  their  ''  science  "  by  so  doing. 
Perhaps,  however,  this  corporeal  sense  is  not  to  be 
entirely  cast  out,  or  the  revelation  to  be  fully  made 
for  anyone,  until  he  or  she  dies,  or — begging  her  par- 
don— seems  to  die.  If  that  is  her  meaning,  we  all 
agree,  there  will  be  no  marrying  after  that.  We  are 
glad  to  see  that  she  accepts  the  words  of  Our  Lord 
that  "  in  the  resurrection  they  neither  marry,  nor  are 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         35 

given  in  marriage "  in  this  their  usual  sense.  But 
then,  you  see,  she  does  not  say  ''  is  cast  out,"  or  '"  is 
revealed."  The  word  is  "  was ;  "  not  is.  There  seems 
to  be  no  way  of  getting  things  straight,  or  of  putting 
any  consistent  sense  into  this  passage. 

We  find  a  little  farther  on,  another  point  to  notice. 

"  She  that  is  married  careth how  she  may  please 

her  husband,"  she  quotes,  correctly  enough  from  the 
Bible;  omitting,  however,  after  "careth,"  the  words, 
"  for  the  things  of  the  world."  But  in  her  own  ver- 
sion— which  we  will  use,  not  to  be  accused  of  cor- 
rupting the  text,  though  both  are  substantially  the 
same — we  find :  "  The  unmarried  woman  careth  for 
the  thin.gs  of  the  Lord,  that  she  may  be  holy  both  in 
body  and  in  spirit ;  "  then  the  passage  which  Mrs. 
Eddy  gives  immediately  follows  with  a  "  but  "  before 
it.  All  this  context  she  omits.  And  all  that  she  says 
about  what  she  does  quote  is  that  "  this  is  the 
pleasantest  thing  to  do." 

We  had  a  sort  of  notion  that  the  cjuestion  would 
be,  not  what  was  the  ''  pleasantest,"  but  the  best  and 
most  perfect ;  the  most  pleasant,  not  to  ourselves,  but 
to  the  Lord.  St.  Paul  says  of  the  man,  two  verses 
before,  "  He  that  is  unmarried  careth  for  the  things 
that  belong  to  the  Lord,  how  he  may  please  the  Lord." 
And  the  same  would  evidently  be  true  of  the  woman. 
But  this  would  not  suit  Mrs.  Eddy's  purpose.  She 
ignores  the  whole  sense  of  St.  Paul's  words,  and  would 
represent  them  as  simply  teaching  us  that  ''  matrimony 
should  never  be  entered  into  without  a  full  recognition 
of  its  enduring  obligation  on  both  sides ;  "  and  that  it 
is  also  much  "  pleasanter  "  to  live  in  this  way  than 
to  be  constantly  fighting  and  quarreling,  and  trying  to 
get  the  best  of  everything  for  oneself. 


36  Tlic  Truth  About  Christian  Science    ■ 

A  little  beyond  this,  we  find  the  following  rather 
suspicious  remark :  "  The  nuptial  vow  should  never 
be  annulled,  so  long  as  its  moral  obligations  are  kept 
intact."  There  is  really  no  meaning  in  this,  except 
that  it  may  be  annulled,  if  its  moral  obligations  are 
not  kept  intact.  And  as  Mrs.  Eddy  has  just  said 
that  one  of  these  obligations  is  ''  the  most  tender 
solicitude  for  each  other's  happiness,"  it  would  seem 
that  if  this  ''  tender  solicitude  "  ceases,  even  on  one 
side,  or  at  any  rate  if  it  does  so  on  both,  the  nuptial 
vow  is  quite  annulled  and  knocked  on  the  head.  Or 
in  other  v/ords,  that  "  incompatibility  "  may  be  a  quite 
sufficient  cause  for  divorce. 

She  says  that  "  the  frequency  of  divorce  shows  that 
the  sacredness  of  this  relationship  is  losing  its  in- 
fluence, and  that  fatal  mistakes  are  undermining  "  the 
foundations  of  the  nuptial  vow.  But  really  the  fatal 
miistake  is  not  in  ceasing  the  ''  tender  solicitude,"  but 
in  thinking  that  the  nuptial  vow  depends  for  its 
validity  on  it. 

The  only  security  for  it  on  which  she  seems  to 
depend  is  to  be  obtained  by  everyone  becoming  a 
*'  Scientist."  ''  Separation  never  would  take  place," 
she  says,  "  if  both  husband  and  wife  were  genuine 
Christian  Scientists."  Not,  it  would  seem,  that  there 
is  any  law  of  God  putting  such  separation  out  of  the 
question,  but  simply  that  they  wouldn't  want  to 
separate.  "  Science,"  she  tells  us,  "  inevitably  lifts 
one's  being  higher  in  the  scale  of  harmony  and  hap- 
piness." "  Kindred  tastes,  motives  and  aspirations  are 
necessary,"  she  adds,  "to  the  formation  of  a  happy 
and  permanent  companionship.  The  beautiful  in 
character  is  also  the  good,  welding  indissolubly  the 
links  of  affection." 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  37 

Still,  perhaps,  she  may  be  willing  to  admit  that 
kindred  tastes,  motives,  and  aspirations,  and  perhaps 
also  beautiful  characters,  are  occasionally  found  among 
people  whom  she  would  not  regard  as  "  scientific ;  " 
but  they  don't  seem  to  be  effectual  in  preventing 
divorce. 

A  good  deal  of  platitude  follows,  in  which  the  poor 
Vv'oman  seems  to  imagine  that  "  unscientific  "  people 
have  no  ''  craving  "  for  anything  but  the  pleasures  of 
the  senses.  She  says,  as  if  it  were  quite  an  original 
idea  with  her,  that  the  "  good  in  human  affections 
must  have  ascendancy  over  the  evil,  and  the  spiritual 
over  the  animal  or  happiness  will  never  be  won."  As 
if  anyone  maintained  the  contrary,  at  any  rate  among 
any  sort  of  Christian  people ! 

But  she  goes  on,  more  and  more  completely  tan- 
gling herself  up.  "  We  must  not,"  she  says,  ''  attrib- 
ute more  and  more  intelligence  to  matter,  but  less 
and  less,  if  we  would  be  wise  and  healthy."  Who, 
except  some  non-Christian  materialists,  attributes  any 
intelligence  to  matter  at  all?  But  it  has  its  laws, 
which  God  has  implanted  in  it,  but  could  alter  them 
at  any  time,  or  destroy  matter  itself  at  any  moment 
which  He  may  choose.  But  unless  He  chooses  to  al- 
ter or  annul  these  laws,  they  are  supreme  in  their 
own  domain.  Mrs.  Eddy  will  never  succeed,  in  mat- 
ters pertaining  entirely  to  that  domain,  in  bringing 
about  any  change  in  them,  unless  the  Almighty,  to 
Whom  alone  they  are  completely  subject,  chooses  to 
come  especially  to  her  assistance.  She  will  never  be 
able,  by  her  "  Christian  Science "  any  more  than 
others  by  their  material  science,  to  make  an  eclipse 
occur  a  second  earlier  or  later  than  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation requires;    and  she   really  knows  this,  and  is 


38  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

wise  enough  not  to  try  to  do  so.  It  is  only  in  mat- 
ters in  which  the  domains  set  by  the  Lord  for  mat- 
ter and  spirit,  as  it  were  overlap,  as  in  those  concern- 
ing the  human  body  (to  which  she  chooses  to  con- 
fine her  attention)  that  she  can,  by  her  so-called 
"  science,"  produce  any  effect  whatever.  But  that  this 
is  possible  is  no  new  discovery  of  hers.  Everyone 
knows  that  the  soul  of  man  has  a  very  considerable 
control  over  the  body ;  the  way  in  which  it  has  it 
is  not  thoroughly  understood  by  us,  and  probably 
never  will  be.  It  can  also  direct  the  forces  of  mere 
matter  into  one  channel  or  another,  as  we  do  con- 
tinually by  simply,  for  example,  pressing  a  button; 
but  its  laws  are  not  changed  in  the  slightest  degree. 
They  work  in  precisely  the  same  way,  in  this  last 
case,  if  we  press  the  button  ourselves,  or  if  some 
simple  force  of  nature,  by  which  something  falls  on 
the  button,  presses  it  for  us. 

It  is  not,  of  course,  impossible,  that  this  direction 
of  the  forces  of  nature  may  be  accomplished  by  the 
soul  without  the  help  or  intervention  of  the  body ; 
or  by  the  voluntary  action  of  some  spirit  not  asso- 
ciated with  a  body;  but  even  this  would  not  require 
any  change  in  the  laws  or  the  forces  of  nature,  or 
any  suspension  of  them,  but  only  that  some  superior 
force  should  counteract  them,  and  partly  prevail 
against  them,  for  the  time  being.  This  may  be  sup- 
posed, evidently,  in  the  case  of  what  may  be  called 
material  miracles,  recorded  in  the  Bible  or  elsewhere. 
But  this  hardly  applies  to  the  alleged  achievements 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  or  other  "  scientists,"  which  mainly  or 
even  entirely  relate  to  matters  of  bodily  healing. 

"  Because  mortals  believe  in  material  laws  and  re- 
ject the  Science  of  Mind,"  she  says,  "  this  does  not 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         39 

make  materiality  first  and  the  superior  law  of  Soul 
last." 

In  point  of  fact,  there  are  no  mortals  who  believe 
in  God  as  Omnipotent  and  believe  in  material  laws 
as  existing  independently  of  Him.  But  all  sensible 
mortals  believe  in  God  as  the  Author  and  Creator 
of  matter  as  well  as  of  mind ;  and  think,  in  spite 
of  Mrs.  Eddy  in  her  next  sentence,  that  in  the  usual 
case,  according  to  the  laws  which  He  has  established 
for  both  matter  and  mind,  "  flannel  is  better  for  Vv^ard- 
ing  off  pulmonary  disease  than  the  controlling  Mind," 
that  being  the  order  divinely  established.  If,  how- 
ever, she  means  (by  putting  Mind  with  a  capital  M) 
the  Mind  of  God,  of  course  no  Christian  thinks  any- 
thing of  the  sort.  But  the  difficulty  is  that  we  know 
that  this  Mind  is  not  in  our  control,  and  that  it  would 
be  simply  presumptuous  for  us  to  act  as  if  it  w^ere. 

In  the  next  paragraph,  we  find  something  really 
mysterious.  It  is  as  follows :  "  In  Science,"  Mrs. 
Eddy  says,  "  man  is  the  offspring  of  Spirit.  The 
beautiful,  good,  and  pure  constitute  his  ancestry. 
His  origin  is  not,  like  that  of  mortals,  in  brute  in- 
stinct, nor  does  he  pass  through  material  conditions 
prior  to  reaching  intelligence."  Well,  we  still  cling 
on,  somehow,  to  the  idea  that  man  is  a  mortal,  even 
according  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  What  is  the  "  mortal  mind," 
that  she  speaks  of,  if  not  the  mind  of  man?  But 
perhaps  she  is  speaking  of  Christian  Scientists,  or  of 
those  predestined  to  become  so.  But  even  they,  even 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  if  we  are  not  mistaken,  passed 
through  some  material  conditions  prior  to  reaching 
intelligence,  especially  if  she  means  the  intelligence 
required  for  a  "  scientist."  But  if  she  just  means 
plain,  ordinary  intelligence,  it  seems  to   follow  that 


40  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

scientists  at  any  rate  existed  and  had  intelligence  be- 
fore they  were  born  or  even  conceived.  We  did  not 
know  that  such  claims  were  made  for  them,  or  for 
anyone;  and  they  do  seem  rather  stag-gering-.  But 
we  must  confess  to  being  rather  mixed  up,  and  have 
a  lingering  fear  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  also  somewhat 
so,  when  she  wrote  these  words. 

But  she  goes  on.  "  Spirit,"  she  says,  "  is  his 
(man's)  primitive  and  ultimate  source  of  being;  God 
is  his  Father,  and  Life  is  the  law  of  his  being." 
Well,  perhaps  she  only  means  that  God  created  man, 
and  that  God  is  pure  Spirit.  This  is  orthodox 
enough.  But  it  does  not  seem  to  be  common  sense 
to  hold  that  God  created  man  as  also  a  pure  spirit, 
and  she  doesn't  actually  hold  it  was.  There  was 
something,  an  error  if  you  please,  but  still  something 
else  in  him,  even  on  her  own  reading,  from  the  start. 
She  cannot  steadily  keep  up  the  pretense  that  there  is 
not,  or  she  would  have  to  stop  talking  at  all  about 
*'  material  conditions,  flannel,  real  estate  "  or  anything 
else. 

There  are  a  few  more  enigmatical  sentences  in 
this  chapter,  from  which  it  is  hard,  and  probably 
impossible,  to  extract  any  definite  meaning.  For  in- 
stance, she  tells  us  that  "  the  time  cometh  of  which 
Jesus  spake,  when  He  declared  that  in  the  resurrection 
there  should  be  no  more  marrying  or  giving  in 
marriage,  but  man  vv^ould  be  as  the  angels."  No 
doubt  that  the  time  for  this  cometh,  but  as  we  have 
said,  it  cannot  well  be  supposed  to  be  till  after  what 
is  commonly  called  "  death." 

But,  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  the  time  will  be 
"  when  it  is  learned  that  God  is  the  Father  of  all." 
We  had  the  impression  that  this  was  learned  a  good 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         41 

while  ago.  But  of  course  she  holds  that  no  one 
but  "scientists"  have  got  hold  of  it  yet.  So  she 
seems  to  mean  that  when  everybody  gets  converted 
to  her  "  science,"  marriage  will  stop,  as  it  did  with 
her  when  she  became  thoroughly  scientific.  But  why 
should  it  not  stop  for  all  those  who  are  truly  disciples 
of  hers?  Surely  there  must  be  some  such.  Why 
should  they  have  to  wait  till  everyone  comes  into 
their  ranks? 

Well,  she  does  seem  really  to  hold  that  something 
of  the  kind  is  coming  on  in  some  sort  of  way  which 
she  does  not  fully  explain.  She  says  that  she  ''  dis- 
credits the  behef  that  "  agamogenesis "  (or  "par- 
thenogenesis," as  it  is  usually  and  more  precisely  called) 
"  applies  to  the  human  species ;  "  or  in  other  words, 
that  children  cannot  come  by  means  simply  of  a 
woman.  But  still,  she  holds  that  "human  genera- 
tion "  is  going  to  cease. 

"  Proportionately,"  she  says,  "  as  human  generation 
ceases,  the  unbroken  links  of  eternal,  harmonious  be- 
ing will  be  spiritually  discerned ;  and  man,  not  of  the 
earth  earthy  but  co-existent  with  God,  will  appear." 

If  this  has  any  meaning  at  all,  it  is  that  a  married 
couple  will  somehow  or  other  have  children  "ap- 
pear," sim.ply  because  they  are  married;  not,  of 
course,  unless  they  are.  These  children  are  going  to 
be  "  evolved  "  from  Spirit  in  some  way.  "  The  scien- 
tific fact,"  she  says,  "  that  man  and  the  universe  are 
evolved  from  Spirit,  and  so  are  spiritual,  is  as  fixed 
in  divine  Science  as  is  the  proof  that  mortals  gain 
the  sense  of  health  only  as  they  lose  the  sense  of  sin 
and  disease."  She  seems  to  think  that  the  only  al- 
ternative to  children  being  "  evolved "  in  this  mys- 
terious   way,    is   that   man    is    the    creator    of    them. 


42  TJie  Truth  About  Clirisliaii  Scioicc 

"  Mortals,"  she  says,  *'  can  never  understand  God's 
creation  while  believing  that  man  is  a  creator."  We 
have  never  met  anyone  who  believed  this.  Certainly 
no  Christian  has  any  such  idea.  Catholics,  at  any 
rate,  believe  that  every  individual  human  soul  is  a 
new  creation  of  God ;  created  by  Him,  not  "  evolved  " 
from  Him.  The  corresponding  body  they  believe  to 
be  formed  from  the  bodies  of  the  parents  according 
to  the  laws  which  God  has  established.  The  matter 
out  of  which  it  is  formed  was  created  by  Him  in  the 
beginning. 

But,  somehow  or  other,  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy, 
"  the  real,  ideal  man  appears  " — she  perhaps  means 
''will  appear" — ''  as  the  false  and  material  disappears." 
"  God's  children  already  created  will  be  cognized," 
she  says,  just  before  this,  "  only  as  man  finds  the 
truth  of  being."  (What  is  it,  by  the  way,  to  be 
cognized?)  The  only  possible  meaning  of  this  seems 
to  be  that  God's  children  will  only  be  known  as  such 
when  man  finds  out  that  He  is  their  Father  and 
Creator;  but  that  was  found  out  ages  ago.  And  the 
sentence  is  tautological,  anyway. 

Next  follows  a  real  gem  of  unmeaning  nonsense. 

"  No  longer  to  marry  nor  to  be  'given  in  marriage' 
neither  closes  man's  continuity  nor  his  sense  of  in- 
creasing number  in  God's  infinite  plan."  What  is 
meant,  precisely,  by  "  continuity  ?  "  And  what  is 
man's  "sense  of  increasing  number?  "  Of  course  it 
can't  be  an  actually  increasing  number,  for  if  so, 
why  say  "sense"  of  it?  The  fact  simply  is,  that 
there  is  no  sense  in  the  whole  thing,  and  we  are 
merely  wasting  time  over  it. 

One  more  brief  remark,  and  we  are  done  with  this 
chapter.     "  Some  day,"  Mrs.  Eddy  asks  in  conclud- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         43 

ing  it,  "  the  child  will  ask  his  parent :  *Do  you  keep 
the  First  Commandment?  Do  you  have  one  God  and 
creator,  or  is  man  a  creator?'  If  the  father  replies, 
*God  creates  man  through  man,'  the  child  may  ask, 
'Do  you  teach  that  Spirit  creates  materially  or  do  you 
declare  that  Spirit  is  infinite,  therefore  matter  is  out 
of  the  question?'  " 

She  evidently  holds  to  her  idea  that  God  cannot 
create  anything  differing  in  any  way  from  Himself. 
Or,  in  other  words,  that  He  cannot  create  (out  of 
nothing,  or  that  is  what  creation  means)  anything  at 
all.     Her  old  pantheism  again. 

Then,  triumphantly,  she  quotes  Our  Lord's  words 
again :  "  The  children  of  this  world  marry,  and  are 
given  in  marriage:  But  they  which  shall  be  accounted 
worthy  to  ol^tain  that  world,  and  the  resurrection 
from  the  dead,  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  mar- 
riage "  (Luke  XX.  34,  35).  She  seems  to  think  that 
this  is  a  sort  of  clincher.  But  in  point  of  fact,  its 
actual  and  obvious  meaning  relates,  as  we  have  said,  to 
the  world  to  come,  after  the  day  of  our  physical  resur- 
rection. 

It  might  have  been  well  for  Mrs.  Eddy  to  remember 
the  words  of  St.  Paul,  in  his  second  epistle  to 
Timothy  (ii.  17)  referring  to  Llymeneus  and  Phile- 
tus ;  ''  who,"  he  says,  "  have  erred  from  the  truth, 
saying  that  the  resurrection  is  past  already,  and  have 
subverted  the  faith  of  some."  Perhaps  they  dis- 
covered "  Christian  Science  "  before  Mrs.  Eddy  her- 
self. 

Swedenborg,  also,  had  an  idea  similar  to  hers,  about 
the  resurrection.  But  it  did  not  occur  to  him  to  get 
a  cure  for  disease  connected  with  it,  so  that  it  has 
not  been  so  much  of  a  success  as  hers. 


44  TJic  TniiJi  .-Iboiil  Chrisliaii  Science 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Christian   Science  and  SriRiTUALiSM. 

As  this  chapter  opens,  poor  Mrs.  Eddy  becomes 
more  wild  and  paradoxical  than  ever.  "  The  revela- 
tions of  Christian  Science,"  she  tells  us,  "  unlock  the 
treasures  of  Truth."  Well,  here  are  some  "  gems  " 
out  of  these  treasures.  *'  There  is,"  we  learn,  "  but 
one  Spirit."  This,  of  course,  is  just  her  old  pantheism 
again.  "  Man,"  she  next  proceeds  to  say,  "  is  never 
God,  but  spiritual  man,  made  in  God's  likeness,  re- 
flects God."  Well  then,  is  man  a  spirit,  or  is  he 
not?  If  not,  what  does  she  mean  by  "spiritual" 
man?  She  tries  to  get  out  of  her  old  pantheism,  and 
pull  the  wool  out  of  her  eyes,  and  out  of  those  of 
her  readers,  by  saying  that  "  spiritual  man  reflects  " 
God.  But  if  any  reflecting  is  to  be  done,  there  must 
be  something  to  do  the  reflecting ;  and  it  must  be 
either  spirit  or  something  else.  But  she  says  that 
there  is  but  one  Spirit;  that  of  God,  of  course. 
Spiritual  man,  then,  is  something  else,  not  spirit. 
But  if  not  spirit,  he  must,  it  would  seem,  be  cor- 
poreal. But  if  so,  his  reflections,  whatever  they  may 
be,  according  co  her,  give  no  information  about  God, 
or  about  anything  whatever.  For  she  says  that  "  the 
testimony  of  the  corporeal  senses  cannot  inform  us 
what  is  real,  and  what  is  delusive."  And  sense,  ac- 
cording to  her,  is  all  that  there  is  in  the  *'  corporeal." 
This,  however,  is  plainly  impossible.  "  Sense  "  can- 
not exist  at  all  by  itself;  there  must  be  something 
in  which  it  is  to  reside. 

The  plain  truth  is  that  there  is  no  making  any 
sense  out  of  anything  that  Mrs.  Eddy  says,  when  she 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  45 

gets  on  this  line.  It  is  quite  true  that  nothing-  exists 
of  necessity  outside  of  God ;  but  her  whole  trouble, 
and  her  unavoidable  absurdities,  come  from  her 
failure  to  recognize  that  God  can  create,  out  of  noth- 
ing, what  has,  previously,  no  existence ;  that,  in 
fact,  this  is  just  Vv'hat  "  creation  "  means.  \Mien  once 
created,  however,  it  is  truly  real  unless  God  chooses 
to  reduce  it  to  nothing  again.  She  often  talks  about 
creation;  but  'she  really  has  no  idea  what  the 
word  means.  \Mien  she  tries  to  get  rid  of  both 
pantheism  and  creation,  she  simply  has  to  flounder 
around. 

Let  us  see  just  one  more  specimen  of  this  flounder- 
ing. She  says  that  we  can  close  our  eyes,  and  imagine 
the  touching  or  smelling  of  a  flower.  "  Thus,"  she 
says,  "  you  learn  that  the  flower  is  a  product  of  mind, 
a  formation  of  thought  rather  than  of  matter."  In 
fact,  we  don't  learn  anything  of  the  kind;  most  peo- 
ple easily  distinguished  between  the  real  flower  and  the 
thought  or  dream  of  it.  Then  she  says  that  we  may 
dream  about  landscapes,  or  men  and  women,  as  well 
as  about  flowers.  "  Thus,"  she  says,  "  you  learn  that 
these  also  " — the  men  and  women,  apparently,  as  well 
as  the  flov/er — "  are  images,  which  mortal  mind  holds 
and  evolves,  and  which  simulate  mind,  life,  and  in- 
telligence." But  what  about  the  mortal  mind  itself? 
It  must  exist  in  order  to  evolve  anything. 

Now,  to  get  out  of  this  nonsense,  as  far  as  possible, 
and  to  get  at  what  she  tries  to  say  about  spiritualism, 
or  "  spiritism,"  as  it  is  more  correctly,  to  avoid  con- 
fusion, called.  She  says  that  its  "  basis  and  structure 
are  alike  material  and  physical.  Its  spirits  are  so 
many  corporealities."  Not  necessarily.  It  is  true 
that  modern  experiments  have  seemed  to  some  people 


46  The  Truth  About  Chriflian  Science 

to  indicate  the  existence  of  "  astral  bodies,"  so  called, 
in  connection  with  them.  But  it  is  perfectly  possible 
for  one  to  be  a  spiritist,  without  believing  in  these. 
Spiritism  does  not,  necessarily,  "  presuppose  Spirit  to 
be  a  corporeal  being." 

And  this  is  not,  really,  Mrs.  Eddy's  objection  to 
spiritism.  It  is,  in  her  own  words,  that  it  has  "  no 
scientific  basis  nor  origin,  no  proof  nor  power  out- 
side of  human  testimony.  It  is  the  offspring  of  the 
physical  senses.  There  is  no  sensuality  in  Spirit." 
And  then  she  adds,  as  a  kind  of  clincher,  "  I  never 
could  believe  in  spiritualism."  That,  of  course,  ought 
to  be  conclusive.  Her  infallibility,  of  course,  is  be- 
yond anything  that  was  ever  claimed  for  the  Pope, 
or  even  for  the  prophets.  Theirs  was  only  occasional ; 
but  hers  lasts  all  the  time.  Why  should  she,  or  any- 
one else,  try  to  argue,  when  it  is  so  easy  to  settle 
everything? 

But  it  seems,  after  all,  that  she  does  condescend  to 
do  so,  and  that  we  may  be  allowed  to  examine  her 
statements.  She  states  that  spiritism  "  has  no  scien- 
tific basis  nor  origin,  no  proof  nor  power  outside  of 
human  testimony."  We  had  an  idea  that  the  basis 
and  origin  of  all  that  is  scientific,  outside  of  what 
is  metaphysical  or  mathematical,  rested  largely  on 
human  testimony.  She  indeed  bases  her  "  Christian 
Science  "  more  successfully  than  in  any  other  way, 
on  her  own  testimony  and  that  of  others,  to  the  cures 
effected  by  it.  In  the  next  paragraph  to  those  already 
quoted,  she  continues  to  knock  out,  not  only  her  own 
"  science,"  but  the  source  from  which  she  claims  to 
derive  it. 

"  There  is,"  she  says,  "  but  one  spiritual  existence, 
the    Life    of    which    corporeal    sense    can    take    no 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         47 

cognizance."  In  this  she  widely  differs,  certainly, 
from  St.  John,  who  begins  his  first  epistle  thus : 
"  That  which  was  from  the  beginning,  which  we  have 
heard,  which  we  have  seen  with  our  eyes,  which  we 
have  looked  on,  and  our  hands  have  handled,  of  the 
\\'ord  of  Life :  for  the  life  was  manifested ;  and  we 
have  seen  and  do  bear  witness,  and  declare  unto  you 
the  life  eternal,  which  was  with  the  Father,  and  hath 
appeared  to  us." 

Of  course,  Mrs.  Eddy  has  shown  often  enough  that 
she  does  not  believe  in  the  Divinity  of  Christ.  But 
in  this  paragraph  she  goes  farther,  and  does  not  ad- 
mit that  His  Body,  was,  even  after  the  Resurrection, 
"  permeated  by  Spirit."  If  it  had  been,  she  says,  it 
would  "  disappear  to  mortal  sense."  But  all  that  she 
claims  to  derive  from  Him  came  before  any  such 
disappearance,  that  is  to  say,  before  His  Ascension. 
And  it  really  also  would  seem,  to  most  of  us,  that  she 
rather  knocks  the  ground  from  under  her  ozvn  feet 
when  she  says  that  a  "  sinning  earthly  mortal  "  is 
not  "  the  medium  through  which  truth  passes  to  the 
earth." 

Practically,  she  denies,  in  these  last  words,  that 
truth  can  ever  pass  to  us  on  earth  at  all.  For  even 
if  she  does  not  count  Our  Lord  as  a  "  sinning,  earthly 
mortal  "  (and  it  is  certainly  to  be  hoped  that  she  does 
not),  she  has  to  admit  that  such  were  some  of  the 
media  through  which  His  words  have  passed  to  us. 
But  perhaps  she  would  deny  that  truth  passed  to  us 
at  all  by  His  words.  Why,  then,  does  she  quote 
them?  Or,  why,  indeed,  did  she  herself  write  a  book 
about  "  Christian  Science,"  even  if  she  herself  was 
not  a  sinning,  earthly  mortal?  For  her  book  must 
have  been  set  up,  printed,  and  sold  by  some  such  peo- 


48  TJie  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

pie;  and  that  would  take  all  the  good  out  of  it  as  a 
means  for  us  to  get  at  the  truth. 

She  now  goes  on  to  some  other  statements,  which 
seem  to  refer  to  what  she  considers  "  spiritualism  "  to 
be.  She  says  that  "  the  belief  that  material  hollies 
return  to  dust,  hereafter  to  rise  up  as  spiritual  bodies 
with  material  sensations  and  desires,  is  incorrect." 
Strange  to  say,  we  find  among  the  few  verses  of 
Scripture,  which  her  "  Key  "  seems  to  fit — at  any  rate 
she  does  not  give  many  more — these  words  of  God 
to  Adam  (Gen.  iii.  19):  ''Dust  thou  art,  and  unto 
dust  thou  shalt  return."  If  this  part  of  the  belief  of 
which  she  speaks  is  incorrect,  it  is  rather  strange,  for 
this  she  gives  out  as  being  the  word  of  God.  But 
perhaps  she  only  means  that  the  part  about  "  rising 
up  "  is  wrong.  But  at  whom  is  she  driving  in  that 
part?  Who  holds  that  the  spiritual  bodies  which 
rise  up  have  "material  sensations  and  desires?"  It 
would  rather  seem  that  she  is  "  fighting  a  man  of 
straw." 

Again,  she  says,  "  it  is  a  grave  mistake  to  suppose 
that  matter  is  any  part  of  the  reality  of  intelligent 
existence."  Few,  if  any,  believe  that  matter  is  in  it- 
self intelligent;  but  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that 
it  plays  a  great  part,  and  is  a  great  help,  in  intelligent 
existence.  Not  even  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  could  have 
got  along  very  well  without  it. 

But  really  it  is  quite  plain  that  either  with  it,  or 
without  it,  she  confesses  that  she  cannot  rise  high 
enough  in  intelligent  existence  to  be  of  any  service  for 
the  work  which  she  has  undertaken.  "  The  finJte," 
she  says,  "  cannot  become  the  channel  of  the  in- 
finite." Well  now,  is  Mrs.  Eddy  finite  or  is  she 
infinite?     We  think  that  she  herself  must  admit  that 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  49 

she  is  only  finite.  But  she  claims  to  be  the  means, 
or  channel,  by  which  a  Divine  Science  has  been  made 
known  to  the  rest  of  us.  It  follows,  according  to  her 
statements,  that  this  claim  must  be  rejected;  and  she 
must  confess  that — to  use  her  own  words — "  it  is 
a  grave  mistake  to  suppose "  that  her  "  Christian 
Science  "  is  Divine  at  all. 

In  her  anxiety  to  destroy  the  tree  of  "  material 
existence,"  she  cuts  off  the  branch  on  which  she  her- 
self is  sitting.  She  repeats  her  o,vn  condemnation 
in  the  very  next  paragraph.  "  To  be  on  communicable 
terms  with  Spirit,"  she  tells  us,  "  persons  must  be 
free  from  organic  bodies."  But  when  she  wrote  this, 
she  was  not  as  yet  quite  free  from  this  "  error."  And 
she  repeatedly  insists  that  "  Spirit "  simply  means 
"  God."  She  not  only  was  unfit,  then,  at  that  time,  to 
receive  a  revelation  from  God ;  she  was  not  even  on 
communicable — or  speaking — terms  with  Him.  But 
this,  as  it  seems  to  us,  was  going  rather  too  far. 

She  goes  on  insisting  that  "  spiritualism  would 
transfer  men  from  the  spiritual  sense  of  existence 
back  into  its  material  sense."  What  ground  she  may 
have  for  this  statement  is  not  quite  clear;  it  is  not, 
at  any  rate,  the  usual  idea  of  spiritualism.  But  she 
seems  to  identify  it,  on  some  special  information  of 
her  own,  with  materialism ;  and  says :  "  This  gross 
materialism  is  scientifically  impossible,  since  to  in- 
finite Spirit  there  can  be  no  matter."  It  is,  of  course, 
usually  believed  that  to  "  infinite  Spirit " — to  God, 
that  is  to  say — the  creation  of  anything  whatever 
ought  to  be  possible ;  but  as  has  been  remarked,  Mrs. 
Eddy  does  not  seem  to  quite  understand  what  is  meant 
by  "  creation."  To  her,  as  appears,  from  her  "  Key  " 
.at  the  very  outset,   it  is   simply   the   "  unfolding  of 


50  Tlic  Truth  About  Christ iau  Scioice 

spiritual  ideas ;  "  what  is  meant  by  "  unfolding " 
them  is  not  clear.  But  the  production  of  anything 
not  previously  existing  she  evidently  regards  as  im- 
possible, even  to  God  Himself ;  and  she  naturally  falls 
into  pantheism,  which  is  her  real  trouble,  and  causes 
her  perpetual  confusion,  as  she  tries  to  escape  from  it. 
If  she  would  only  squarely  adopt  it,  she  would  get 
along  much  better  with  her  other  false  notions. 

She  almost  does  so,  a  little  later  on  in  this  chapter. 
*'  Existence,"  she  says,  *'  continues  to  be  a  belief  of 
corporeal  sense  until  the  Science  of  being  is  reached." 
Poor  woman !  She  is  struggling,  without  any  really 
scientific  preparation,  with  these  grave  problems 
which  require  the  most  serious  study,  even  by  the 
greatest  theologians.  She  seems  never  to  have  heard 
of  their  investigations  of  these  mysteries,  humbly 
made  by  the  help  of  the  light  which  the  Holy  Ghost, 
through  the  Church,  sheds  on  them. 

Of  course  her  difficulties  are  as  much  with  the 
existence  of  other  spirits,  as  well  as  with  that  of  mat- 
ter. But  she  tries  to  shake  these  ofif,  by  ignoring  in 
spiritism,  as  well  as  in  orthodox  Christian  teaching, 
any  assertion  of  the  existence  of  spiritual  beings  ex- 
cept that  of  God  Himself,  and  making  out  that  in 
them  also  is  "  materialism,"  from  which  we  are 
gradually  being  freed.  But  the  question  who  are  zve, 
she  puts  aside,  and  will  not  grapple  with  it.  Neither 
spiritual  nor  material  it  would  seem. 

In  spite  of  her  efforts,  her  pantheism  crops  out 
now  and  then  continually.  "  Man,"  she  says,  "  in  the 
likeness  of  God  as  revealed  in  Science  cannot  help 
being  immortal."  That  is  to  say,  his  existence  is 
not  contingent,  but  necessary ;  and  must  go  on 
eternally.    But  she  seems  to  fail  to  see  that  this  would 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         51 

show  that  the  existence  of  man,  as  well  as  that  of 
God,  had  no  beginning,  as  well  as  no  end.  But  this 
would  be  a  too  logical  pantheism  for  her  to  swallow, 
or  to  give  out  at  any  rate.  But  she  likes  to  serve 
it  up  under  a  fine-sounding  form  of  words,  such  as 
this :  "  In  Science,  man's  immortality  depends  on 
that  of  God,  good,  and  follows  as  a  necessary  con- 
sequence of  the  immortality  of  good." 

Just  after  this  passage,  she  makes  the  following 
statement :  "  That  somebody,  somewhere,  must  have 
known  the  deceased  person,  supposed  to  be  the  com- 
municator, is  evident."  How  does  she  make  this  out? 
And  what  does  she  mean  by  "  known?  "  In  ordinary 
language  it  would  seem  to  mean  been  acquainted  in 
this  world  with  the  person  now  deceased ;  or,  perhaps, 
have  been  properly  introduced  to  him.  Well,  the 
chances  certainly  are  that  somebody,  somewhere,  had 
even  that  privilege.  But  why  should  it  be  necessary? 
We  do  not,  usually,  stand  on  ceremony  so  strictly. 
Most  of  us  do  not  refuse  to  communicate  by  tele- 
phone, for  instance,  with  people  to  whom  we  have 
never  been  introduced,  or  with  whom  we  have 
had  no  previous  acquaintance;  and  we  may  even  go 
so  far  as  to  give  the  time  of  day  to  some  stranger 
on  the  street.  And  one  does  not  exactly  see  the  con- 
nection between  this  remark,  even  if  there  is  any 
sense  in  it,  and  the  one  which  follows,  which  informs 
us  that  "  it  is  as  easy  to  read  distant  thoughts  as 
present."  We  might  form  a  connection  between  the 
two  remarks  by  means  of  the  next,  in  which  we  are 
told  that  "  we  think  of  an  absent  friend  as  easily  as 
we  do  of  one  present."  But  this  won't  do,  because 
she  immediately  extends  this  to  the  "absent  mind" 
in  general.     "Chaucer,"  she  says,  "wrote  centuries 


52  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

ago,  and  yet  we  still  read  his  thought  in  his  verse ;  " 
and  even  Mrs.  Eddy  can't  have  been  personally  knov/n 
to  Chaucer.  We  must  confess  that  we  can't  see  what 
she  is  driving  at;  and  we  have  a  lingering  suspicion 
that  she  doesn't  see  it  herself. 

And  so  she  goes  on  through  a  whole  page,  of  which 
the  gist,  if  there  is  any,  seems  to  be  that  "  even  if 
our  departed  friends  were  near  us,  we  could  not  com- 
municate with  them,  because  "  their  state  of  conscious- 
ness must  be  different  from  ours."  It  certainly  does 
not  seem  evident  that  it  must  be  so  different  as  all 
that.  Her  proof  of  it  appears  to  be  established  in 
her  own  mind  by  the  question  w^hich  she  asks : 
''When  wandering  in  Australia,  do  we  look  for  help 
to  the  Esquimaux  in  their  snow  huts?  "  Really, 
however,  the  trouble  with  the  Esquimaux  in  this  case 
is  not  a  want  of  anything  in  their  "  state  of  conscious- 
ness," but  that  they  are,  physically,  so  far  away,  and 
also  probably  don't  know  anything  about  Australia. 
But  if  an  Esquimaux  had  ever  been  in  Australia,  as 
the  departed  friends  are  supposed  to  have  been  here, 
he  might  perhaps  be  of  some  service.  And  at  any 
rate  if  we  could  reach  him  by  'phone,  he  could  tell 
us  something  about  Esquimaux-land ;  and  in  the  case 
of  the  departed  spirits,  it  is  about  their  world  that  we 
want  to  know,  not  about  our  own.  On  the  whole, 
the  illustration  does  not  seem  to  be  a  very  fortunate 
one. 

We  have  dwelt  somewhat  at  length  on  this — in  it- 
self rather  unimportant  point — for  it  seems  to  be 
about  the  only  one  which  has  any  close  reference  to 
"  Spiritualism,"  which,  rather  than  Spirit  in  general, 
seems  to  be  the  special  subject  of  the  chapter. 

But  Mrs.  Eddy  gives  a  caution,   immediately  fol- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         53 

lowing  it,  which  is  certainly  well  worthy  of  our  at- 
tention, and  also  would  have  deserved  her  own.  "  It 
is  wise,"  she  says,  "  earnestly  to  consider  whether  it 
is  the  human  mind  or  the  Divine  Mind  which  is  in- 
fluencing one."  It  is  refreshing  to  learn,  by  the  way, 
that  there  really  is  such  a  thing  as  the  human  mind. 
Usually  it  would  appear  that  this  mind  is  only  an 
"  error,"  and  has  no  real  (or  positive)  existence. 
Mrs.  Eddy  seems,  however,  just  here,  to  be  willing 
to  look  at  things  as  they  actually  are.  And  it  is  just 
this  "  consideration  "  which  she  recommends,  which 
brings  us  to  the  real  and  serious  danger  of  spiritism. 
She  wants  us,  it  would  seem,  to  realize  that  there  is 
no  possibility  of  our  coming  under  influences  w^hich 
are  real,  but  very  far  from  being  Divine.  And  the 
worst  of  it  is — though  this  she  hardly  admits — that 
these  influences  may  be  a  great  deal  more  injurious 
to  us  than  merely  human  ones  can  be. 

The  existence  of  such  influences  is  plainly  shown 
to  us  in  the  comparatively  small  portion  of  Scripture 
to  which  Mrs.  Eddy  confines  the  use  of  her  "  Key." 
But  she  chooses  to  shut  her  eyes  to  it;  to  explain  it 
all  away.  And  in  this  she  simply  falls  in  with  the 
prevailing  ideas  of  the  world  in  this  unbelieving  age. 

"  The  masterpiece  of  Satan,"  said  the  great  Jesuit 
preacher.  Father  de  Ravignan,  ''  has  been  to  get  his 
existence  denied  by  the  world  of  to-day."  People 
who  do  not  believe  in  him  will  not  be  on  their  guard 
against  him.  But  if  there  is  anything  plainly  taught 
in  Scripture — and  there  are  many  things  so  taught, 
though  it  nowhere  claims  to  be  our  only  guide  to 
truth  in  religion — it  is  the  actual  existence  of  Satan 
and  other  evil  spirits.  \\t  have  Our  Lord's  own 
word  for  it.     We  read  in  St.  Luke's  Gospel  that  He 


54         The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science 

said  in  replying  to  His  disciples,  who  told  Him  that 
"  the  devils  are  subject  to  us  in  Thy  Name,"  that 
He  Himself  "  saw  Satan  like  lightning  falling  from 
heaven."  Of  course,  Mrs.  Eddy  can  explain  away 
these  plain  words,  as  she  does  so  many  other  things 
which  He  said.  But  the  personal  existence  of  Satan 
and  his  crew  is  asserted  most  clearly,  over  and  over 
again,  in  Scripture,  particularly  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. And  it  is  also  confessed  by  modern  spiritists, 
and  even  by  the  "  controls  "  themselves.  "  I  am  not 
a  departed  spirit,"  said  one  of  them  not  long  ago,  to 
its  medium,  as  reported  by  a  scientific  investigator, 
in  the  Annals  of  Psychical  Science.  Usually,  as  the 
endeavor  of  most  spiritists  is  to  prove  the  **  survival 
of  bodily  death,"  and  evidence  of  it  is  specially  ac- 
ceptable to  them,  "  controls  "  do  not  speak  so  plainly. 
But  at  any  rate,  whether  we  are  ready  to  accept 
such  statements  or  not,  the  possibility  of  diabolic  in- 
fluences in  any  sort  of  communications  can  hardly 
be  denied,  except  by  those  who,  like  Mrs.  Eddy,  find 
the  actual  existence  of  anything  not  Divine,  incon- 
sistent with  a  theory  to  which  they  have  committed 
themselves,  and  which  they  choose  to  regard  as  un- 
questionable. And  this,  as  was  above  remarked,  is 
the  real  danger  of  the  whole  business  to  people  in 
general,  and  even  to  "  scientists  "  (or  Eddyists)  them- 
selves, that  it  requires  the  most  serious  considera- 
tion, and  even  with  such  consideration  it  will  not  al- 
ways be  ascertained  what  sort  of  "  mind  "  it  is  by 
which  we  are  ''  influenced,"  as  Mrs.  Eddy  herself 
warns  us.  And  she  does  not  indicate  any  way,  in 
which  her  own  statements  can  be  clearly  determined 
as  coming  from  the  Divine  Mind,  as  long  as  she 
admits  that  they  may  come  from  some  other  "  mind," 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 


DO 


even  though  it  be  so  exalted  a  one  as  hers.  Of 
course,  if  her  mind  is  actually  identical  with  the 
Divine  Mind,  and  has  no  admixture  of  human 
*'  error  "  in  it,  we  need  not  be  worried ;  but  in  that 
case  we  fail  to  see  any  need  for  the  consideration 
which  she  recommends.  It  would  be  quite  sufficient 
that  the  "  influence  "  is  that  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  If  it  is 
"Eddy,"  it  is  all  right;  if  it  is  "not  Eddy,"  it  is 
wrong.  Where,  then,  is  the  need  for  any  great  care 
or  earnestness  in  consideration?  There  remains,  how- 
ever, one  little  difficulty,  it  must  be  confessed;  it  is, 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  not  infrequently  contradicts  herself. 

The  rest  of  the  chapter  has  nothing  particular  about 
"  Spiritualism,"  which  it  is  fair  to  assume,  she  means 
in  it,  what  is  more  distinctively  defined  by  the  word 
"  spiritism."  For  she  says  that  she  "  never  could  be- 
lieve in  spiritualism."  Tt  evidently  is  the  ordinary 
thing  known  as  such,  which  she  means.  Or  at  any  rate, 
it  probably  is  so ;  for  really,  one  is  not  always  sure — 
in  fact,  one  seldom  is — just  what  she  is  talking  about. 

One  curious  idea,  however,  crops  out  in  the  last  part 
of  this  chapter,  rather  more  frequently  than  usual. 
It  is  that  the  belief  of  ordinary  Christians,  and  people 
in  general  who  are  not  ''  scientists,"  is  that  thought 
and  all  mental  action  are  produced  by  what  we  call 
*'  matter."  This  is  not,  perhaps,  distinctly  stated,  but 
she  seems  to  be  fighting  this  "  straw  man  "  all  the 
time.  She  seems  to  think  that  because  we  believe  in 
the  reality  of  matter,  we  must  be  "  materialists." 

Of  course,  one  can  find  specimens,  all  the  way 
through  this  chapter  as  well  as  others,  of  the  sort  of 
thing  already  commented  on.  For  example :  "  The 
more  destructive  matter  becomes,  the  more  its  nothing- 
ness will  appear  "  (how,  we  might  inquire,  can  "  noth- 


56         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

ing "  be  destructive,  or  become  so?)  "until  matter 
reaches  its  mortal  zenith  "  (how  can  nothing  reach  a 
zenith?)  "in  illusion  and  forever  disappears."  If 
people  like  this  sort  of  talk,  that,  as  Lincoln  said,  is 
the  sort  of  thing  they  like,  and  v^^hich  fills  them 
with  admiration  for  Mrs.  Eddy's  wonderful  wisdom. 
But  it  might  be  well  for  them  to  ask  themselves  if 
they  can  translate  it  into  plain  English,  or  make  any 
real  sense  out  of  it. 

There  is,  however,  one  fairly  definite  statement  of 
hers  which  really  ought  to  be  noticed,  as  she  makes 
it  with  some  reference  to  her  special  hobby  about 
bodily  "  healing,"  which  she  regards  as  the  chief  ob- 
ject which  Christ  came  to  earth  to  accomplish.  She 
says:  "If  this  Science  [Christian  Science]  has  been 
thoroughly  learned  and  properly  digested,  we  can  learn 
the  truth  [all  truth  of  course,  for  why  one  more 
than  another?]  more  accurately  than  the  astronomer 
can  read  the  stars  or  calculate  an  eclipse."  Well,  if 
this  statement  is  correct,  Mrs.  Eddy  ought  to  have 
shown  its  correctness  by  calculating  eclipses  "  more 
accurately  "  than  they  are  given  in  the  Nautical  Al- 
manac. For  she  must  have  "  learned  and  properly 
digested "  her  Christian  Science  as  well  as  anyone 
can  be  expected  to  do  it.  But  if  she  had  made  any 
attempt  in  this  line,  it  would  hardly  have  been  suc- 
cessful, unless  she  had  looked  in  the  Almanac  on  the 
sly ;  and  even  if  she  had,  she  probably  would  not  have 
correctly  understood  the  calculations  there  made,  and 
therefore  prudently  did  not  make  the  attempt. 

Later  on,  she  makes  the  remark  that  "  the  earth's 
motion  and  position  are  sustained  by  Mind  alone." 
This  is  a  very  true  one;  but  all  the  "Christian 
Science  "  that  Mrs.  Eddy  or  anyone  else  has  ever  at- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         57 

tained,  has  never  obtained  any  approximation  to  that 
Mind  except  by  the  help  of  plain  ordinary  ''  material  " 
science ;  which,  according  to  her,  could  lead  to  noth- 
ing but  ''  error."  Perhaps,  however,  she  would  say 
that  the  observations  made  on  phenomena  like  eclipses, 
and  even  the  phenomena  themselves,  are  also  ''er- 
rors ;  "  but  it  is  strange  that  two  independent  errors 
can  agree  so  well.  If  Mrs.  Eddy  here,  and  indeed  all 
through,  had  tried  to  use  a  little  more  common  sense, 
she  would  have  avoided  a  good  many  blunders. 

But  we  must  pass  on  to  other  chapters,  in  which  we 
shall  also  find  them,  perhaps  even  more  abundantly. 

CHAPTER  V. 

Animal  Magnetism. 

This  is  rather  an  antiquated  sort  of  title ;  but  as 
she  is  careful  to  state,  she  uses  the  term  as  meaning 
what  is  now  usually  known  as  "  hypnotism."  But 
still  she  takes  advantage  of  the  old  form  to  show,  to 
her  own  satisfaction,  that  God  can  have  nothing  to 
do  with  it,  for  what  seems  to  her  the  conclusive  rea- 
son that  "  His  power  is  neither  animal  nor  human." 
*'  God,"  according  to  her,  "  governs  all  that  is  real, 
harmonious,  and  eternal,"  and  seems  to  mean  by  this 
that  He  governs  nothing  else ;  probably  because  she 
holds  that  there  is  nothing  else.  This  "  argument " 
would  be  shorter  and  simpler  if  she  had  said :  "  There 
can't  be  any  animal  magnetism,  because  there  isn't  any 
animal."  So  of  course,  as  she  continues,  "  animal 
magnetism,  mesmerism,  or  hypnotism,  is  a  mere  ne- 
gation, possessing  neither  intelligence,  power,  nor 
reality."  She  naturally  goes  on  to  demonstrate  that 
therefore  it  can't  do  any  harm.     An  extract  which 


58         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

she  gives  from  the  Boston  Herald  objects  to  "  mes- 
merism "  as  implying  the  use  of  despotic  control,  and 
quite  sensibly  states  that  it  may  *'  be  abused  by  its 
possessor."  "  Oh,  no,"  says  Mrs.  Eddy.  *'  Mankind 
must  learn  that  evil  is  not  power.  Its  so-called 
despotism  is  but  a  phase  of  nothingness." 

Very  well  then;  this  is  really  quite  consoling.  If 
an  evil-minded  person — she  seems  to  admit  sometimes 
that  there  are  evil-minded  (or  mortal-minded)  peo- 
ple— should  fire  off  a  train  of  powder  or  other  ex- 
plosive, it  really  would  seem  that  even  Christian 
Science  practitioners  who  were  in  the  vicinity  might 
get  hurt;  that  it  might,  indeed,  in  one  sense,  be  a 
phase  of  nothingness  for  their  arms  or  legs,  or  even 
their  whole  bodies;  but  one  which  would  seriously 
interfere  with  their  usefulness.  Perhaps,  however, 
she  does  not  believe  this  would  be  the  case,  if  they 
really  had  "  digested "  the  principles  of  Christian 
Science.  For  she  says  that  "  Christian  Science  despoils 
the  kingdom  of  evil."  But  we  fear  that  even  she  her- 
self would  not  have  liked  to  take  such  a  chance.  And 
besides  it  seems  to  be  some  sort  of  evil  to  blow  up 
people  who  are  not  "  scientific  "  enough  to  escape  un- 
harmed. 

She  says  that,  "  in  Christian  Science,  man  can  do  no 
harm."  But  we  see  that  here  by  "  man "  she  only 
means  Scientists.  And  why?  Simply  because  such  an 
one  can't  think  wrong.  "  Scientific  thoughts,"  she 
says,  ''are  true  thoughts,  passing  from  God  to  man." 
With  this,  the  sky  seems  to  clear  up  somewhat.  There 
is  some  sense  in  holding  that  no  harm  can  be  done 
to  Scientists,  or  by  Scientists.  But  her  other  dicta 
will  have  to  be  modified.  To  the  assertion  that  "  evil 
is  not  power,"  we  shall  have  to  add  **  over  Scientists." 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         59 

Really,  however,  her  idea  and  statement  was  that  it  is 
not  power  at  all,  over  anyone  or  anything.  For  "  evil," 
she  tells  us  a  little  above,  "  is  unreal."  And  this  is 
her  doctrine  all  the  time.  What  is  "  unreal  "  certainly 
has  no  power.     In  that  we  all  agree. 

It  is,  however,  a  hopeless  undertaking  to  make  any 
sense  of  statements  like  the  following :  "  Christian 
Science  goes  to  the  bottom  of  mental  action,  and  re- 
veals the  theodicy  which  indicates  the  rightness  of  all 
divine  action  as  the  emanation  of  divine  Mind,  and  the 
consequent  wrongness  of  the  opposite  so-called  ac- 
tion— evil,  occultism,  necromancy,  mesmerism,  animal 
magnetism,  hypnotism."  This  is  not  a  statement  of 
any  thing  at  all.     It  is  a  mere  string  of  words. 

There  is  quite  a  good  deal  of  this  kind  of  talk 
in  the  chapter,  but  not  so  much  as  in  most  of  them, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  it  is  shorter  than  the  others. 
So,  for  the  same  reason,  there  is  no  reason  to  say  so 
much  about  it ;  but  we  can  pass  on  to  the  next,  which 
has  an  appearance  of  coming  nearer  to  the  gist  of 
what  Mrs.  Eddy  regards  as  the  gospel  which  Christ 
came  to  teach ;  that  is  to  say,  how  to  escape  from 
bodily  disease,  and  the  suffering  that  it  causes.  St. 
Paul  and  the  other  Apostles,  and  all  the  saints,  re- 
garded the  sharing  or  "  fellowship  of  His  sufferings 
and  being  made  conformable  to  His  death"  (Phil.  iii. 
10)  as  the  greatest  blessing  which,  in  this  life,  they 
could  hope  to  attain;  but  Mrs.  Eddy's  notion  is  evi- 
dently quite  different.  He,  however,  tells  us,  and  takes 
the  pains  to  repeat  it,  that  "  though  we,  or  an  angel 
from  heaven,  preach  any  other  gospel  unto  you  than 
that  which  we  have  preached  unto  you,  let  him  be  ac- 
cursed "  (Gal.  i.  8).  Mrs.  Eddy's  own  version  is  even 
more  emphatic  than  ours. 


6o         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Science,  Theology,  Medicine. 

Mrs.  Eddy  prefixes  to  this  chapter  a  quotation  from 
St.  Paul,  which  she  seems  to  mean  to  apply  to  her- 
self. St.  Paul,  in  it,  tells  us  of  his  gospel,  that  he 
"  neither  received  it  of  man,  neither  was  I  taught  it, 
but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ."  And  she  starts 
out  by  informing  that  ''  in  the  year  1866,  I  dis- 
covered the  Christ  Science  or  divine  laws  of  Life, 
Truth,  and  Love,  and  named  my  discovery  Christian 
Science."  And  that  there  may  be  no  doubt  what  kind 
of  a  "  discovery  "  this  was,  she  goes  on  to  say  that 
"  God  had  been  graciously  filling  me  during  many 
years  for  the  reception  of  this  final  revelation  of  the 
absolute  divine  Principle  of  scientific  mental  healing." 
It  was,  then,  not  what  is  commonly  understood  as  a 
"  scientific  "  discovery,  but  a  real  and  genuine  revela- 
tion;   just  the  thing  that  St.  Paul  warns  us  against. 

Christians  in  general,  and  Catholics  in  particular, 
have  always,  in  accordance  with  St.  Paul's  words,  re- 
fused to  accept  any  revelation  of  later  date  than  that 
made  to  the  Apostles.  It  may  be  worth  while  to 
state,  by  the  way,  that  Catholics  are  far  from  imagin- 
ing that  even  the  Pope,  though  divinely  commissioned 
as  successor  to  the  xA.postles,  has  the  power  which  they 
had,  to  receive  or  promulgate  new  revelation.  The 
sphere  of  his  infallibility  is  simply  to  determine,  in 
case  of  doubt,  what  they  had  received  from  Christ  or 
from  the  Holy  Ghost.  But  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim,  as 
you  see,  goes  far  beyond  that.  The  Pope,  moreover, 
in  thus  determining,  simply  tries,  by  a  careful  study  of 
Scripture  and  tradition,  to  find  out,  historically,  what 


The  Tnifli  About  Christian  Science  6i 

the  actual  doctrine  was  in  the  Church  of  the  x\postles 
itself  ;  but  Mrs.  Eddy  does  not  bother  about  that.  She 
is  quite  as  competent  to  get  original  revelations  as  the 
Apostles  themselves. 

This,  of  itself,  should  completely  discredit  her 
"  Christian  Science "  in  the  eyes  of  Catholics,  and 
should  suffice  for  all  genuine  Christians.  For  the  lat- 
ter, in  general,  it  ought  to  be  enough  to  remark  that 
there  is  in  Scripture  no  intimation  of  anyone  to  come 
with  authority  to  communicate  a  new  message  from 
God,  after  that  made  by  Christ  and  His  chosen 
Apostles.  Mrs.  Eddy  is  condemned  by  her  own  pre- 
tensions just  as  much  and  on  the  same  grounds  as 
Mahomet,  and  is  just  as  thoroughly  antichristian  as 
he  was.  The  only  way  in  which  Scripture  predicts 
her  is  in  passages  like  Matt.  xxiv.  5 :  "  Many  will 
come  in  My  name,  saying  I  am  Christ :  and  they  will 
seduce  many."  It  would  have  been  well  for  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  have  thought  more  seriously  of  these  and 
other  similar  words.  And  particularly  for  Catholics, 
it  would  also  be  well  to  add  those  very  "  intolerant  " 
ones  of  St.  John's  first  Epistle:  "We  are  of  God. 
He  that  knoweth  God,  heareth  us.  He  that  is  not  of 
God,  heareth  us  not.  By  this  we  know  the  spirit  of 
truth,  and  the  spirit  of  error." 

But  it  is  time  to  go  on,  and  look  into  what  Mrs. 
Eddy's  pretensions  actually  are,  and  to  see  not  only 
how  antichristian  they  are,  and  how  fallacious  in 
themselves.  She  starts  out,  as  usual,  to  fight  a  notion 
of  her  own,  which  is  not  a  Christian  one  at  all.  "  Feel- 
ing," she  says,  "  so  perpetually  the  false  consciousness 
that  life  inheres  in  the  body;  yet  remembering  that 
in  reality  God  is  our  Life."  Now  all  good  Christians 
are  as  much  persuaded  of  this  falsity  and  of  this  reality 


62         The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science 

as  Mrs.  Eddy  herself.  Life  does  not  "  inhere  "  in  the 
body,  we  all  know  that ;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  not  ''stuck" 
in  it,  for  that  is  what  "  inhering  "  would  mean.  Chris- 
tians, as  has  already  been  said,  are  not  materiahsts. 
And  we  all  perfectly  recognize  that  "  in  reality  God  is 
our  Life;  "  and  not  only  our  Life,  but  the  Life  of  all 
that  is;  that  all  life  originates  in  Him,  is  created  by 
Him,  and  requires  His  continual  support  for  it  to  con- 
tinue. There  is  not,  for  even  a  moment,  any  life  in- 
dependent of  His.  But  it  does  not  follow  from  this 
that  all  life  is  identical  with  His,  any  more  than  that 
inanimate  creation  is  identified  with  Him. 

It  is  really  time  now  for  us  to  come  to  some  under- 
standing of  what  is  meant  by  the  word  "  life,"  in- 
stead of  using  it  vaguely,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  so  constantly 
does.  Life,  properly  speaking,  does  not  simply  mean 
existence.  Inanimate  matter  (such  as  stones,  metals, 
chemical  substances  in  general)  has  a  real  existence. 
But  it  is  not  said  to  have  life  in  any  sense  if  it  is 
merely  governed  by  the  physical — in  a  technical  sense 
— or  chemical  laws  which  entirely  control  what  is 
recognized  as  inanimate.  There  is  something  more  in 
it  than  these  and  which  directs  them ;  though  we  do 
not,  as  yet,  exactly  know  what  it  is.  Whatever  it  is, 
it  is,  of  course,  dependent  on  the  will  of  God, 
created  and  maintained  by  Him,  as  inanimate  matter 
itself  is. 

It  is  interesting  to  all  of  us,  particularly  to  students 
of  natural  science.  But  it  is  not  important,  as  far  as 
Mrs.  Eddy's  doctrines  are  concerned.  For  they  are 
really  occupied,  almost  or  quite  exclusively,  with  hu- 
man life ;  hardly  with  that  of  vegetables,  or  of  brutes, 
at  all.  Whatever  may  be  held  with  regard  to  brute  or 
vegetable  life,  man  is  distinguished  from  the  inanimate 


The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science         63 

by  having  something  connected  with  his  material  body, 
which  is  quite  different  from  that  body,  and  which  has 
none  of  the  ordinary  marks  or  properties  rightly  be- 
longing to  matter.  It  is  not  directly  apprehended  by 
any  of  the  senses,  by  means  of  which  we  know  all  that 
we  are  able,  experimentally,  to  know  about  matter. 
It  has  none  of  the  properties  we  find  by  our  senses 
to  exist  in  matter.  It  has  no  extension,  color,  odor  or 
taste.  It  is  invisible  and  intangible.  But  it  is,  though 
not  apprehended  directly  by  the  senses,  much  more 
intelligible  to  us  than  what  is  so  apprehended.  It  is, 
in  fact  (in  philosophy)  called  the  intelligible,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  sensible.  We.  may,  if  we  please, 
and  sometimes  we  do,  doubt  the  information  which 
the  senses  gives  us  about  matter ;  but  we  cannot  refuse 
to  believe  in  the  existence  of  this ;  for  it  is  by  it  that 
the  refusal  would  have  to  be  made. 

It  is  not  exclusively  located  in,  or  confined  to  any 
part  of  our  material  bodies,  though  it  operates  more 
effectually  in  some  than  in  others.  Its  activities  are 
more  or  less  helped  or  hindered  by  the  good  or  bad 
condition  of  the  body,  as  is  quite  evident;  that  the 
body  can  operate  on  it  is  true.  But  it  is  also  true, 
and  much  more  evidently,  that  it  can  and  does  act  on 
the  body. 

This  principle  of  activity  in  us  is,  by  the  universal 
consent  of  all  Christians,  of  immensely  more  im- 
portance than  any  residing  in  the  body.  And  by  the 
same  universal  consent,  the  body  is  not  necessary  to 
its  existence ;  but  it  and  its  mysterious  union  with  the 
body  are  necessary  to  the  existence  of  the  body  as  an 
organized  substance.  If  this  union  ceases,  the  body 
becomes  mere  matter,  subject  to  the  same  physical  laws 
as  matter  in  general.     But  the  action  of  this  principle 


64  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

in  us  is  not,  in  itself,  affected ;  but  only  as  regards  its 
connection  with  the  material  world  outside.  This 
principle  in  us  is  called  the  spirit,  or  soul. 

Human  life,  as  known  in  this  material  world,  in- 
volves the  existence  of  the  soul  and  also  of  the  body 
with  which  it  is  connected.  Each,  however,  may  be 
said  to  have  a  life  of  its  own.  But  the  life  of  the 
body  is  evidently  connected  with  that  of  the  soul,  and 
ceases  when  the  connection  is  entirely  broken  by  the 
change  which  we  call  death.  According  to  universal 
Christian  belief,  that  of  the  soul  continues  after  death. 
The  life,  both  of  the  soul  and  of  the  body,  comes,  of 
course,  from  God.  But  neither  of  them  is  identified 
with  His.  These  simple  facts  every  Christian  believes, 
and  such  has  always  been  the  teaching  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

But  it  appears  that  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  some  way,  got 
the  idea  that  the  Church,  at  any  rate  at  the  present 
day,  had  accepted,  if  it  had  not  held  from  the  be- 
ginning, thoroughly  materialistic  views  on  these  sub- 
jects, and  believed  that  matter  existed  quite  inde- 
pendently of  God,  and  that  all  its  properties  ''  in- 
hered "  in  it  without  being  caused  in  any  way  by  Him. 
She  seems  to  have  thought  that  according  to  Christian 
teaching,  "  life  inheres,"  as  she  says,  "  in  the  body  "  of 
itself  and  by  itself ;  that  it  is  a  purely  physical  "  func- 
tion," as  a  mathematician  would  say,  of  the  energies 
which  the  body  possesses  of  itself;  but  that  these 
energies  may  cease  to  produce  it,  by  being,  as  it  were, 
exhausted,  or  in  some  way  which  she  does  not  explain. 
And  that  this  is  not  the  case  (which  every  Christian 
understands  very  well)  she  calls  a  "heavenly  convic- 
tion," which  came  to  her  by  a  special  revelation ;  that 
it  was,  in  her  case,  ''  the  gift  of  the  grace  of  God,  given 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         65 

unto  me  by  the  effectual  working  of  His  power."  In 
point  of  fact  there  was  no  need  of  any  special  reve- 
lation to  her,  unless  she  was  so  stupid  as  not  to  possess 
the  faculties  of  reason,  by  which  it  is  quite  possible  for 
people  in  general  to  see  that  there  can  be  only  one  nec- 
essary and  self -existent  Being,  and  that  all  the  energies 
existing  in  any  other  come  from  His  creating  and 
preserving  power. 

''  It  was,"  she  tells  us,  "  the  divine  law  of  Life  and 
Love,  unfolding  to  me  the  demonstrable  fact  that  mat- 
ter possesses  neither  sensation  nor  life."  It  certainly 
is  a  demonstrable  fact,  that  matter,  in  itself,  inde- 
pendent of  God,  does  not  and  cannot  possess  either 
sensation  or  life,  and  indeed  that  it  cannot  without 
Him  exist  in  any  way.  But  that  this  (if  this  is  what 
she  means)  was  unfolded  in  any  special  way  to  her, 
implies  that  she  herself  could  not  get  at  it  otherwise. 
But  she  says  herself,  that  it  is  "  demonstrable."  Was 
she,  then,  the  only  person  so  inaccessible  to  demonstra- 
tion, that  she  had  to  have  it  "  unfolded  "  to  her  by  a 
special  revelation?  But  to  be  fair  to  her,  this  cannot 
be  what  she  means.  Well,  then,  what  does  she  mean? 
She  means  that  matter  cannot,  even  by  any  power  from 
God,  either  have  sensation  or  life.  There  is  no  other 
thing  for  her  to  mean ;  and  she  might  as  well  say  right 
out,  that  matter  cannot,  or  at  any  rate,  does  not  exist 
in  any  way.  For  she  says  that  *'  human  experiences 
show  the  falsity  of  all  material  things."  And  what  is 
the  meaning  of  this,  if  not  that  there  are  no  material 
things? 

The  whole  difficulty  with  the  poor  woman  is  that  she 
never  has  accepted,  or  apparently  even  understood,  the 
dogma  of  creation,  as  has  already  been  remarked.  She 
cannot  or  will  not  admit  that  anything  can  exist  unless 


66  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

it  always  has  existed.  It  is  a  puzzle,  undoubtedly,  to 
all  of  us,  how  something  can  be  created  out  of  nothing. 
But  the  rest  of  us,  as  a  rule,  see  that,  as  a  fact,  it  is 
unquestionable. 

Conformably  with  this  conclusion  of  hers,  that  there 
are  no  material  things,  she  arrives  at  another,  namely, 
that  the  only  sufferer  is  "  mortal  mind,"  whatever  that 
may  be.  But  what  is  this  "  mortal  mind?"  If  there 
are  no  material  things,  how  can  there  be  any  spiritual 
or  mental  things?  It  is  just  as  denionstrable  of  mind 
outside  of  the  Divine  Mind,  as  it  is  of  matter,  that  it 
cannot  exist  of  itself. 

What  seems  to  result  from  all  this  simply  is  that 
there  really  is,  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  something 
which  God  somehow  did  manage  to  create,  and  which 
really  exists  as  a  fact ;  and  it  is  what  she  calls  "  mor- 
tal mind."  It  really  exists,  however  delusive  its 
imaginings  about  matter  and  even  about  itself  may  be. 
But  we  read  on  a  little  farther,  and  this  hope  of  some- 
thing to  stand  on  is  knocked  out,  by  the  statement  that 
''  Christian  Science  reveals  incontrovertibly  that  Mind  " 
(with  a  large  M)  "  is  All-in-all,  and  that  the  only 
realities  are  the  divine  Mind  and  idea." 

This  she  calls  a  "  great  fact."  She  confesses  that  it 
is  not  ''  seen  to  be  supported  by  sensible  evidence." 
What  she  means  by  "  sensible  evidence  "  is  not  per- 
fectly clear.  She  can't  mean  the  evidence  of  the  bodily 
senses,  for  that,  of  course,  with  her,  could  not  exist. 
There  is  no  material  body,  she  tells  us,  and  of  course 
no  bodily  senses.  Probably  she  means  rational  evi- 
dence. For,  she  says,  its  "  divine  Principle  is  demon- 
strated "  (that  is,  proved  rationally)  "by  healing  the 
sick  and  thus  proved  absolute  and  divine."  But  un- 
fortunately  there    really    are    no    "  sick."      The    only 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         67 

realities,  she  has  just  stated,  "  are  the  divine   Mind 
and  idea." 

Certainly,  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  is  a  very  holy  one. 
Wherever  you  put  your  finger,  you  find  a  hole.  Such 
is  the  result  of  neglecting  the  senses  as  an  evidence  of 
certitude.  When  you  need  them  most,  they  slip  away 
from  you,  and  you  have  nothing ;   only  vacancy. 

She  goes  on,  struggling  desperately  for  some  firm 
footing.  "  I  knew,"  she  says,  "  the  principle  of  all 
harmonious  Mind  action  to  be  God."  "  The  principle 
of  all  harmonious  Mind  action."  What  is  meant  by 
this  exactly  ?  A  paragraph  or  so  above,  "  Mind  is  all." 
Now  Mind  (with  a  large  M)  which  in  her  notation 
means  God,  is  reduced  to  being  merely  the  principle 
of  all  harmonious  Mind  action.  But  if  Mind  still 
means  God,  it  is  certainly  a  very  small  claim  that  He 
is  the  principle  of  His  own  action.  Perhaps  she  meant 
to  write  mind  (with  a  small  m).  But  if  Mind  (with 
a  large  M)  is  All,  there  is  no  room  for  mind,  even 
with  a  small  m ;  which,  nevertheless,  she  told  us  just 
now  that  she  had  discovered  as  producing  "  all  the  or- 
ganism and  action  of  the  fnortal  body."  She  says  that, 
in  this  producing,  it  is  misnamed  mind.  What,  then, 
is  the  right  name  for  it?  "  Mortal  mind,"  she  prefers 
to  call  it.  But  in  the  ordinary  use  of  language,  mortal 
mind  should  mean  some  kind  of  mind,  unless  perhaps 
it  is  quite  a  new  word,  mortalmind ;  just  one  word, 
not  two.  This,  however,  does  not  help.  If  Mind  is 
All-in-all,  and  matter  is  naught,  mortalmind  is  also 
naught,  just  as  absolutely  naught  as  matter  is.  What 
is  the  use  of  having  a  name,  when  there  is  nothing  to 
be  named? 

Oh,  the  whole  thing  is  simply  a  maze  of  hopeless 
confusion.     And  yet  in  struggling  with  it,  Mrs.  Eddy 


68         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

says  that  she  was  "  buoyant  with  hope."  She  hoped,  it 
would  seem,  that  in  course  of  time  some  sense  could 
be  made  of  it,  by  somebody  else,  if  not  by  herself. 
Certainly  she  must  have  had  a  very  sanguine  dis- 
position. No  sense  can  be  got  out  of  it,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  there  is  no  sense  in  it.  And  no  sense  can 
be  made  of  it,  because  there  is  nothing  to  be  made 
sense  of. 

She  seems  to  base  her  hope,  sometimes,  on  using  big 
or  somewhat  unusual  words;  such  as  the  "  equipol- 
lence  "  of  God,  which  appears  a  little  below.  We  find 
"  equipollence  "  defined  in  the  dictionary  as  follows : 

1.  Equality  of  power,  force,  signification,  or  appli- 
cation. 

2.  And  equivalence  between  two  or  more  proposi- 
tions. 

In  relation  to  God,  it  does  not  appear  what  mean- 
ing Mrs.  Eddy  attaches  to  the  word.  There  seems  to 
be  none,  except  perhaps  that  she  uses  the  -word 
"Mind"  as  synonymous  with  ''God."  This  is  quite 
allowable,  but  requires,  of  course,  more  complete 
statement.  But  it  is  not  evident  how  by  it  "  Man's 
perfectibility  and  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  on  earth  "  is  "  brought  to  light,"  which  she  as- 
serts to  be  the  case. 

She  says  that  "  in  following  these  leadings  of  scien- 
tific revelation,  the  Bible  was  my  only  textbook."  It 
really  seems  that  it  might  have  been  more  prudent  for 
her  to  take  some  commentary  made  by  those  more 
learned  than  herself ;  for  St.  Peter  tells  us  that  in  the 
epistles  of  St.  Paul  "  there  are  some  things  hard  to 
be  understood,  which  the  unlearned  and  unstable  wrest 
unto  their  own  destruction ;  "  and  says  that  the  same 
is  true  also  of  the  other  Scriptures.     (This  is  Mrs. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         69 

Eddy's  own  version.)  But  of  course  when  they  were 
"ilhimined"  for  her  from  on  High,  the  wonder  is 
only  that  she  troubled  herself  with  the  Bible  at  all; 
and,  in  fact,  it  does  not  seem  that  she  used  her  "  text- 
book "  very  much.  Usually,  she  got  along  without 
any  textbook  at  all.  Her  idea  of  Christ's  teachings 
is  obtained  rather  from  what  He  ought  to  have  taught, 
than  from  what  He  actually,  according  to  the  records, 
did  teach.  Any  statement  which  He  made,  but  which 
is  not  thoroughly  "  scientific,"  can  be  easily  explained 
by  His  imperfect  scientific  development.  One  has  only 
to  look  at  her  book  to  see  how  seldom  in  it  she  quotes 
the  Bible  at  all.  But  it  is  strange  that,  as  she  did  not 
have  to  make  her  gospel  agree  with  it,  she  could  not 
get  up  something  agreeing  with  itself  a  little  better. 

She  says  about  this  very  book  of  hers,  that  "  no 
human  pen  nor  tongue  taught  me  the  Science  con- 
tained in  this  book  Science  and  Health;  and  neither 
tongue  nor  pen  can  overthrow  it."  Well,  if  that  is 
the  case,  it  is  not  very  surprising:  it  is  rather  hard 
to  "  overthrow  "  or  even  oppose  a  statement  which 
has  no  ascertainable  meaning  in  it  to  be  opposed.  It 
is,  of  course,  impossible  to  make  any  remark  on  all 
the  wild  statements  of  which  this  book  is  full  with- 
out writing  one  a  hundred  times  as  large.  All  that 
can  be  done  is  to  make  a  selection,  here  and  there,  of 
some  which  may  serve  as  examples.  It  is,  fortunately, 
not  necessary  to  notice  them  all,  for  the  great  ma- 
jority of  them  are  simply  repetitions ;  now  and  then 
something  may  emerge  which  seems  to  be  a  little  dif- 
ferent from  the  mass. 

The  following,  for  instance,  might  seem  to  be  such. 
She  says :  *'  Jesus  demonstrated  the  power  of  Chris- 
tian Science  to  heal  mortal  minds  and  bodies."     One 


70         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

would  think  that,  if  this  is  the  case,  there  must  be 
some  plain  statement  of  His  own  record  to  the  effect 
that  He  was  using  what  she  calls  '*  Christian  Science  " 
in  His  works  of  healing;  but  there  is  nothing,  in 
fact,  of  the  kind.  All  that  this  little  sentence,  then, 
amounts  to  is  that  He  actually  did  heal  mortal  minds 
and  bodies.  The  rest  of  it  simply  means  that  since 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  "  demonstrated  "  (that  is  to  say,  as- 
serted) that  there  is  no  other  power  except  Christian 
Science  by  which  this  can  be  done,  so  that  it  must 
claim  the  credit  of  all  that  He  did  in  this  line.  One 
would  think  that  even  her  followers  would  see  how 
barefaced  and  groundless  an  assumption  like  this  is; 
but  no ;    they  swallow  it  right  down. 

Then  she  goes  on  to  say  that  this  power  was  "  lost 
sight  of."  But  how  could  it  be  "  lost  sight  of,"  if 
nobody  before  Mrs.  Eddy  ever  had  a  sight  of  it? 
The  actual  works  which  she  ascribes  to  it  were  not 
lost  sight  of,  as  she  seems  to  imagine  or,  at  any  rate, 
to  pretend ;  they  have  been  going  on  steadily  all  the 
time  in  the  Church,  right  down  to  the  present  day, 
and  still  continue.  But  she  pays  no  attention  to  facts. 
If  they  don't  correspond  with  her  theory,  which  she 
calls  "  Science,"  so  much  the  worse  for  them.  It  is 
impossible,  according  to  her,  a  priori,  for  any  works 
of  healing  to  be  done  by  those  who  do  not  believe  in 
her  teaching.  "  Its  Science,"  she  says,  "  must  be  ap- 
prehended by  as  many  as  believe  on  Christ,  and 
spiritually  understand  Truth."  Believing  on  Christ 
will  not  do ;  even  spiritually  understanding  Truth  is 
not  sufficient.  You  must  also  apprehend  Mrs.  Eddy. 
And  she  is  not  so  easy  to  apprehend,  when  she  uses 
phrases  like  this,  for  instance,  of  "  spiritually  under- 
standing Truth,"  which  give  no  peg,  as  it  were,  to 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         71 

hang-  an  apprehension  on.  What  is  it,  may  we  ask, 
to  "spiritually"  understand  a  thing?  It  must  be, 
apparently,  the  same  as  to  "  mentally  "  understand  it. 
But  how  can  one  mentally  understand  anything-,  with 
nothing  but  mortal  mind  to  do  it  with  ?  ''  Mortal 
mind,"  she  tells  us  just  below,  "  implies  something 
untrue  and  therefore  unreal :  and  as  the  phrase  is 
used  in  teaching  Christian  Science,  it  is  meant  to 
designate  that  which  has  no  real  existence."  We 
can't,  then,  according  to  her  Science,  even  make  this 
preliminary  stop  needed  for  her  "  Science,"  of 
"  spiritually  understanding  Truth,"  for  we  have  noth- 
ing which  really  exists  to  do  it  with. 

As  to  her  "  Scientific  Translation  of  Immortal 
Mind,"  a  long  document,  which  shortly  follows,  it  is 
quite  impossible  to  make  anything  out  of  it,  for  there 
is  really  nothing  in  it,  but  a  jumble  of  statements, 
some  of  which  everybody  believes,  some  of  which  have 
no  definite  meaning,  and  some  of  which  we  can  only 
trust  that  she  herself  did  not  believe.  Of  the  last  kind, 
we  select  the  following  choice  "  gem :"  "  Christian 
Science,"  she  says,  "  attaches  no  physical  nature  and 
significance  to  the  Supreme  Being  or  His  manifesta- 
tion ;   mortals  alone  do  this." 

We  ought  to  pass  by  as  unworthy  of  notice  the 
idea  that  even  "  unscientific  "  Christians  regard  the 
Supreme  Being  as  corporeal,  if  that  is  what  she 
means  by  "  physical."  They  have  always  "  empha- 
sized "  the  statement  that  God  is  incorporeal,  just  as 
much  as  any  "  Scientist."  And  the  word  "  physical," 
when  not  used  in  such  a  restricted  technical  sense, 
simply  means  "  natural ;  "  and  this  sentence,  there- 
fore, seems  to  mean  that  there  is  no  Divine  Nature 
at  all,  or  at  any  rate,  if  there  is,  "  Christian  Science  " 


J2  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

attaches  no  significance  to  it.  In  other  words,  the 
Divine  Nature  is  insignificant. 

After  all,  this  may  be  too  much,  even  for  Mrs,  Eddy. 
So,  probably,  she  must  mean  *'  corporeal  "  when  she 
says  "  physical."  But  then  she  goes  on  to  tell  us, 
that  "  God's  essential  language  is  spoken  of  in  the 
last  chapter  of  Mark's  Gospel  as  the  new  tongue." 
the  spiritual  meaning  of  which  is  attained  through 
"  signs  following."  Now  in  point  of  fact,  in  this 
place  she  really  garbles  the  Gospel  from  which  she 
quotes.  It  does  not  speak  of  any  "  new  tongue,"  but 
of  "  new  tongues,"  and  the  words  evidently  do  not 
have  any  special,  or  mystical  meaning,  but  simply 
refer  to  corporeal  tongues  or  languag-es  personally 
unknown  to  the  believers  who  were  to  use  them. 
These  were  corporeal,  if  she  allows  that  they  were 
real  at  all ;  and  so  were  the  "  signs  following."  They 
really  were  "  manifestations  of  the  Supreme  Being." 
But  Mrs.  Eddy,  it  seems,  will  not  allow  them  to  be 
such.  It  is  rather  strange  that  when  she  gets  the 
whole  evidence  of  her  so-called  "  Science  "  from  them, 
of  like  phenomena,  she  insists  that  Science  regards 
them  as  insignificant. 

But  here  is  something  still  more  important.  In 
passing,  we  may  happen  to  notice  a  simple  allusion 
to  "  His  (Jesus')  mighty,  crowning,  unparalleled, 
and  triumphant  exit  from  the  flesh."  She  speaks  of  this 
as  if  it  were  a  well-known  fact,  acknowledged  by 
everyone.  As  no  one,  however,  seems  to  have  any 
information  about  it  except  herself,  we  should  like, 
if  Mrs.  Eddy  had  not  already  made  that  exit,  to  have 
her  tell  us  when  it  occurred.  For  she  does  not  seem 
to  be  speaking  of  His  death  on  the  Cross.  She  at- 
taches no  special  triumph  to  that.    Moreover,  that  exit 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  73 

of  His  was  only 'for  a  brief  time,  at  any  rate;  unless 
Mrs.  Eddy  chooses  to  doubt  His  own  words,  spoken 
after  the  Resurrection,  to  His  Apostles,  **  See  My 
hands  and  feet,  that  it  is  I  Myself ;  handle,  and  see : 
for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones,  as  you  see  Me 
to  have." 

The  only  line  which  Mrs.  Eddy  could  take  in  this 
matter,  without  charging  Our  Lord  with  conscious 
fraud  or  deception,  would  be  to  say  that  Christ, 
Whom  she  calls  "  the  Master,"  as  not  far  enough  ad- 
vanced in  Christian  Science  to  know  that  He  did  not 
really  have  any  flesh  and  bones,  which  He  said,  "  You 
see  Me  to  have,"  not  "  I  seem  to  have."  She  would 
probably  say  that  He  was  mistaken  about  that ;  it  was 
an  error  of  ''  mortal  mind,"  which  still  clung  to  Him. 

Or  she,  perhaps  even  more  probably,  would  say 
that  He  had  not  then  made  the  "  exit  from  the  flesh  " 
to  which  she  was  alluding.  That  was  made  when  He 
ascended  into  heaven.  But  the  record  tells  us  that 
"  while  they  looked  on  He  was  raised  up,  and  a  cloud 
received  Him  out  of  their  sight."  His  body  went  up 
till  they  could  see  it  no  longer  on  account  of  the 
cloud.  No  exit  from  the  flesh  on  His  part  is  recorded 
as  having  been  seen,  or  in  any  way  made  known  to 
us.  What,  then,  should  make  Mrs.  Eddy  say  so  con- 
fidently that  any  such  exit  occurred?  That  was  the 
last  chance  for  us  to  have  any  evidence  of  it.  Well, 
it  is  just  of  a  piece  with  most  of  the  other  things 
which  have  any  sense  or  meaning  which  she  says. 
"  I  myself,  am  the  evidence  for  it ;  "  that  is  all  that 
there  is  for  her  to  say.  "  God,  Spirit,  Mind,  revealed 
it  to  me.     What  more  evidence  do  you  want  ?  " 

Whatever  her  followers  would  think  of  this,  it  is 
to  the  unprejudiced  mind  the  most  extreme  audacity 


74         The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science 

and  absurdity  for  her  to  call  her  alleged  discovery 
*'  Christian "  Science,  when  Christ  seems  to  have 
known  nothing  of  it.  Even  her  followers  must,  one 
would  think,  see  that  she  is  trying  to  get  the  shelter 
of  His  Name  for  what,  even  if  it  came  from  God, 
was  unknown  to  Christ,  and  of  course  no  science 
to  His. 

Why  not  come  out  in  the  open,  and  not  make  such 
a  pretense?  Why  not  have  the  courage,  like  her  il- 
lustrious predecessor,  Mahomet,  to  boldly  say  that 
"  there  is  but  one  God,  and  Mrs.  Eddy  is  His 
prophet?  "  He  got  along  pretty  well,  and  she  might 
have  done  as  well  herself,  on  a  similar  platform.  For, 
really,  what  she  holds  out  to  her  believers  is  much  the 
same  sort  of  thing  as  what  he  promised  to  his.  In 
his  case,  it  was  sensual  pleasure ;  in  hers  it  is  very 
similar;  that  is  to  say,  relief  from  sensual  pain. 
How  to  have  a  good  time,  in  this  world  as  well  as  in 
the  next,  is  the  gospel  for  both.  And  it  is  a  very 
good  gospel  to  draw  those  who  do  not  relish  the  idea 
of  sacrifice,  and  do  not  see  any  use  in  it,  or  any  need 
for  it.     It  has  always  had  a  great  many   disciples. 

A  little  farther  on,  Mrs.  Eddy  comes  out  with  a 
statement  which  actually  does  have  a  definite  mean- 
ing, a  very  unusual  thing  for  her,  and  quite  refresh- 
ing. It  is  easily  seen  to  be  erroneous,  and  it  may  be 
regarded  as  the  chief  cause  of  her  other  errors.  It 
is  in  the  form  of  a  dilemma ;  and  because  there  is 
some  appearance  of  sense  and  logic  in  it,  it  is  better 
worth  looking  at  than  most  of  the  mere  verbiage  of 
which  she  is  so  lavish. 

It  is  as  follows :  "  When,"  she  says,  "  we  endow 
matter  with  vague  spiritual  power — that  is  when  we 
do  so  in  our  theories,  for  of  course  we  cannot  really 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  75 

endow  matter  with  what  it  does  not  and  cannot 
possess — we  disown  the  Almighty,  for  such  theories 
lead  to  one  of  two  things :  they  either  presuppose  the 
self-evolution  and  self-government  of  matter,  or  else 
they  assume  that  matter  is  the  product  of  Spirit." 
She  quite  correctly  says  that  ''  to  seize  the  first  horn 
of  this  dilemma,  and  to  consider  matter  as  a  power 
in  and  of  itself,  is  to  leave  the  creator  out  of  His 
own  universe."  But  she  is  not  so  happy  with  the 
second  horn.  ''  To  grasp  this,"  she  says,  "  and  re- 
gard God  as  the  creator  of  matter,  is  not  only  to 
make  Him  responsible  for  all  disasters,  physical  and 
moral,  but  to  announce  Him  as  their  source,  thereby 
making  Him  guilty  of  maintaining  perpetual  misrule 
in  the  form  and  under  the  name  of  natural  law." 

Let  us  now  see  just  what  the  error  in  this  is.  It 
would  be  quite  true,  if  matter  were  the  whole  of  what 
He  has  created.  Of  itself  it  always  follows  strictly 
the  laws  which  He  has  laid  down  for  it.  But  He  has 
chosen  to  create  something  else,  which  does  not  work 
in  the  same  way.  This  something  else  is  what  she 
calls  "  mortal  mind."  He  has  seen  fit,  for  reasons 
which  we  cannot  fathom  of  ourselves,  and  which  He 
has  not  fully  explained  to  us,  to  endow  this  other 
class  of  His  creation  with  a  faculty  which  matter  does 
not  possess ;  and  this  is  the  faculty  or  ability  of  free 
zvill.  One  reason  for  giving  it  seems  to  be  the  greater 
or  additional  glory  resulting  to  Himself  from  being 
served  and  obeyed  by  a  creature  who  is  able  to  say, 
"  I  will  not  serve  or  obey,"  than  by  one  who  is  so 
constituted  as  not  to  be  able  to  do  so.  This  glory  is 
expressed,  perhaps,  most  clearly  in  words  which  Mrs. 
Eddy  had  not  been  brought  up  to  consider  as  in- 
spired ;    and  perhaps  she  may  not  have  even  known 


76  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

anything  about  them.  They  are  in  themselves,  of 
course,  very  clear.  They  are  the  following :  "  Who 
hath  been  tried  thereby,  and  made  perfect,  he  shall 
have  glory  everlasting.  He  that  could  have  trans- 
gressed, and  hath  not  transgressed :  and  could  do  evil 
things,  and  hath  not  done  them :  therefore  are  his 
goods  established  in  the  Lord"  (Ecclus.  xxxi.  lo,  ii). 

But  we  do  not  need  the  words  of  inspiration  to  assure 
us  of  this ;  for  it  is  a^  fact  evident  to  our  own  con- 
sciousness. The  early  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth 
century  chose  to  deny  this ;  and,  as  they  could  not 
deny  that  man  did  do  evil  things,  they  chose  to  deny 
that  he  was  able  to  avoid  them.  By  this  they  fell 
into  the  same  fatal  mistake  as  Mrs.  Eddy,  of  making 
the  All-Good  the  creator  of  evil,  in  this  second  horn  of 
her  dilemma.  They  were  not  able  to  get  out  of  it. 
And  how  does  she  think  that  she  gets  out  of  it? 
Why,  simply  by  denying  the  actual  existence  of  mat- 
ter. It  would  have  been  simpler  to  deny  the  existence 
of  "  mortal  mind,"  as  she  sometimes  does  ;  that  would 
have  been  quite  sufficient.  But  as  the  great  point 
which  she  had  in  view  was  the  healing  of  bodily  ills, 
and  as  this  could  not  always  be  accomplished,  the  pref- 
erable way  was  to  assert  that  there  really  were  no 
bodily  ills ;  that  they  were  only  a  delusion  of  "mor- 
tal mind ;  "  and  in  this  way  God  is  no  longer  re- 
sponsible for  them  or  any  other  material  "  disaster." 
But  as  she  saw  well  enough  that  this  delusion  would 
be  a  mental  "  disaster,"  she  had,  sometimes  at  any 
rate,  to  also  assert  that  there  really  is  no  '*  mortal 
mind."  The  difficulty,  of  course,  brought  in  by  this, 
would  be  that  her  second  horn  would  vanish  alto- 
gether, and  reduce  her  argument  to  nothing. 

If  she  had  only  been  content  with  simply  asserting 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         yy 

that  the  only  existence  was  that  of  God,  she  could 
have  got  along  well  enough ;  but  that  would  have 
knocked  out  the  "  sick  "  people,  who  were  to  be  healed, 
and  which  were  the  underpinning  for  her  whole  sys- 
tem. But  a  great  deal  of  her  difficulty  comes  in  by 
her  simply  insisting  on  her  own  ideas  of  what  is 
good  or  bad.  She  says :  "  The  lawgiver,  whose 
lightning  palsies  or  prostrates  in  death  the  child  at 
prayer  is  not  the  divine  ideal  of  omnipresent  Love." 
She  means,  ''  is  not  Mrs.  Eddy's  ideal."  It  does  not 
seem  to  even  occur  to  her  that  anyone  else,  even  God 
Himself,  could  have  any  idea  different  from  hers. 
Many  of  us  poor  ordinary  Christians,  for  instance,  in 
this  particular  case,  could  easily  account  for  it  by  the 
words  of  what  we  regard  as  Scripture :  "  He  was 
taken  aw^ay  lest  wickedness  should  alter  his  under- 
standing or  deceit  beguile  his  soul  "  (Wisd.  iv.  ii). 

Just  a  little  word  for  a  moment  to  show  the  inaccuracy 
so  often  found  in  her  writing.  She  says,  "  In  viewing 
the  sunrise,  one  finds  that  it  contradicts  the  evidence 
before  the  senses  to  believe  that  the  earth  is  in  motion, 
and  the  sun  at  rest."  Begging  her  pardon,  it  does 
nothing  of  the  kind.  All  that  the  senses  tell  us  is 
that  there  is  relative  motion  of  the  two.  It  may  be 
worth  these  few  words  to  remark  that  if  one  looks 
at  the  sunrise  through  a  telescope  which  has  a  driv- 
ing clock  attached,  the  sun  will  appear  to  the  senses 
as  standing  perfectly  still,  and  the  earth's  horizon  as 
plainly  falling  away  from  it.  So  it  is  by  no  means 
true  that  "  the  earth's  diurnal  relation  is  invisible  to 
the  physical  eye,"  as  she  asserts  on  the  next  page 
but  one. 

She  proceeds  to  argue  on  this  point  to  something 
more    important,    but    with    equal    and    more   evident 


78  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

error.  She  says :  "  Health  is  not  a  condition  of  mat- 
ter, but  of  Mind;  nor  can  the  material  senses  bear 
reliable  testimony  on  the  subject  of  health."  Well, 
of  course,  we  may  have  wrong  ideas  on  the  matter  of 
health :  but  as  far  as  the  senses  bear  testimony,  we  can 
depend  on  them.  It  may  be  very  healthy  for  a  man 
to  have  his  pulse  beating  two  hundred  times  a  minute ; 
the  senses  give  no  testimony  on  that  point,  but  only 
on  the  actual  rate  at  which  it  is  beating.  Or  it  may 
be  very  healthy  for  his  face  to  be  covered  with  pus- 
tules of  something  which  looks  like  small-pox,  but 
the  senses  are  correct  in  their  testimony  that  the  pus- 
tules, whatever  they  may  be,  are  there. 

It  is  not  on  the  senses  directly  that  the  conclusions 
of  physicians  are  based ;  but  what  is  reasonably  de- 
duced from  their  evidence.  It  may  be  that  a  pulse 
of  two  hundred  a  minute  is  all  right ;  but  we  know 
by  reason  and  experience,  that  in  all  probability  it  is 
not. 

Some  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  remarks,  which  she  imagines 
to  be  scientific,  are  certainly  rather  amusing.  For 
example,  she  says  on  the  next  page :  *'  The  barometer 
— that  little  prophet  of  storm  and  sunshine,  denying 
the  testimony  of  the  senses — points  to  fair  weather  in 
the  midst  of  murky  clouds  and  drenching  rain."  One 
would  think  that  this  remark  was  made  by  some  little 
boy  or  girl ;  and  that  it  is,  indeed,  probable  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  did  not  know  what  a  barometer  really  is,  or  is 
meant  for,  as  well  as  the  average  little  boy  or  girl  in 
these  learned  days. 

What  a  real  barometer  does,  and  the  only  thing 
which  it  does,  is  to  measure  the  pressure  of  the  air. 
It  does  not,  of  itself,  tell  us  anything  at  all  about 
storm  or  sunshine.     Those  words  are  simply  put  on 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         79 

aneroid  barometers  offered  on  sale,  to  interest  the 
unscientific  (or  Eddian)  public.  Really  the  absolute 
reading  of  the  barometer  is  not  of  much  significance ; 
it  is  the  direction  or  amount  of  its  change  that  is  of 
importance.  You  can  learn  nothing  about  the  weather 
by  merely  looking  at  a  barometer;  you  have  got  to 
watch  it,  and  see  the  way  the  hand  is  moving;  and 
it  is  for  this  purpose,  and  so,  save  the  trouble  of  mak- 
ing successive  notes  of  its  position,  that  the  little  brass 
pointer,  which  is  moveable  by  hand,  but  does  not 
move  otherwise,  is  attached.  To  do  this  is  of  some 
use  to  ship  captains ;  but  really  not  much  toward  fore- 
casting the  weather  can  be  done  without  measurements 
of  the  barometric  pressure  made  at  various  points 
over  a  large  area  and  at  regular  intervals  of  time. 
And  yet,  comical  as  it  really  is,  the  poor  woman 
actually  brings  up  her  own  personal  ignorance  of  the 
use  of  a  barometer  as  one  of  the  "  illusions  of  material 
sense." 

It  is  really  astonishing  that  ordinarily  intelligent 
people  can  be  taken  in  by  stuff  like  the  following, 
which  we  find  a  little  further  on.  But  the  book  is 
full  of  the  same  sort  of  thing.  "  Our  theories,"  she 
tells  us,  "  make  the  same  mistake  regarding  Soul  and 
body  that  Ptolemy  made  regarding  the  solar  system. 
They  insist  that  soul  is  in  body,  and  mind  therefore 
tributary  to  matter."  Of  course  the  notion  of  "  mind 
being  tributary  to  matter  "  does  not  in  any  way  follow 
from  the  connection  evidently  existing  between  soul 
and  body,  as  long  as  it  is  held  (as  of  course  it  is  by 
all  Christians)  that  the  soul  is  the  superior  element, 
and  that  body,  without  it,  has  only  some  auto- 
matic functions  of  a  lower  order,  and  that  even  these 
cease  when  the  two  are  separated. 


8o  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

The  "  error  relating  to  soul  and  body  "  of  which  she 
here  writes,  is  one  which  in  reality  hardly  anyone 
holds ;  it  is  all  in  her  own  imagination ;  for  the  or- 
dinary materialist  does  not  admit  the  idea  of  soul  at 
all.  This  is  the  same  old  fighting  a  man  of  straw,  in 
which  she  so  often  indulges,  and  which  is  quite  a 
favorite  pastime  with  opponents  of  the  plain  truth  of 
common  sense. 

"  The  verity  of  Mind,"  she  adds,  "  shows  conclu- 
sively how  it  is  that  matter  seems  to  be,  but  is  not." 
This  sort  of  sentence  is  quite  a  favorite  one  with 
her.  Her  disciples,  of  course,  swallow  it  right  down, 
as  if  it  really  had  some  meaning.  But  unless  the 
"  verity  "  has  some  peculiar  definition  which  she  does 
not  condescend  to  explain,  it  would  mean  simply 
"  truth,"  or  actual  existence,  of  the  thing  which  is 
stated  to  have  *'  verity."  But  to  maintain  that  the 
actual  existence  of  "  Mind  "  shows  ''  conclusively  " 
that  matter  has  no  actual  existence  is  obviously  a 
mere  assertion  on  her  part ;  not  in  any  way  a  proof. 
It  is  perfectly  conceivable  that  both  Mind  and  matter 
have  actual  existence.  Even  if  it  were  in  some  way 
proved  that  matter  had  no  actual  existence,  it  would 
not  appear  **  how  "  the  existence  of  Mind  showed  or 
proved  this. 

She  now  starts  out  on  a  special  lucubration,  to  ex- 
plain her  use  of  the  term  "  Christian  Science."  She 
says  that  she  introduced  it  "  to  designate  the  scien- 
tific system  of  divine  healing,"  and  goes  on  to  state 
that  the  "  revelation  "  consists  of  two  parts. 

I.  "The  discovery  of  this  divine  Science  of  Mind- 
healing,  through  a  spiritual  sense  of  the  Scriptures 
and  through  the  teachings  of  the  Comforter,  as 
promised  by  the  Master. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         8i 

2.  The  proof,  by  present  demonstration,  that  the  so- 
called  miracles  of  Jesus  did  not  specially  belong  to  a 
dispensation  now  ended,  but  that  they  illustrated  an 
ever-operative  divine  Principle.  The  operation  of 
this  Principle  indicates  the  eternality  of  the  scientific 
order  and  continuity  of  being." 

There  seems  to  be  no  particular  call  for  this  second 
part  of  the  '*  revelation  "  or  "  demonstration,"  as  far 
as  any  new  '*  Science "  is  concerned,  as  the  great 
majority  of  Christians  have  never  held  that  the 
miracles  of  Jesus  belonged  to  a  dispensation  now  ended, 
as  these  miracles  have,  by  evidence  unquestionable  to 
those  who  will  examine  it,  been  going  on  continually 
ever  since,  right  down  to  our  own  day.  The  Church 
has  also  always  held  that  "  they  illustrated  an  ever 
operative  divine  Principle,"  for  He  had  said :  *'  I  am 
with  you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 
(We  quote  the  Protestant  version,  as  more  familiar  to 
Mrs.  Eddy,  and  as  being  in  a  way  more  unmistakable 
than  the  Douay,  which  has  "  consummation  "  instead 
of  "  end.")  Catholics,  at  any  rate,  have  always  ex- 
pected these  miracles,  and  have  always  had  them ;  not 
because  of  any  "  eternality  "  of  the  scientific  order  and 
continuity  of  being  (for  Our  Lord  might  have  stopped 
them  if  He  had  so  chosen),  but  simply  because  such 
was  His  promise.  What,  we  may  ask  in  passing,  does 
she  mean  by  "  eternality."  One  always  has  to  look 
out,  in  "  Eddian "  Science,  for  something  behind 
which  she  hopes  to  take  refuge,  and  spring  from  it  on 
you  at  some  time,  unexpectedly.  We  do  not  find  the 
word  in  the  dictionary,  and  do  not  see  how  it  is  an 
improvement  on  the  well  known  one  "  eternity." 

Well,  now  to  go  back  to  the  first  part  of  the  "  reve- 
lation," which  is  the  only  part  which  seems  to  have 


S2  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

anything  in  it.  This  is  the  alleged  discovery  of  "  a 
divine  Science  of  Mind-healing."  It  does  not  at  first 
clearly  appear  w^hether  this  mind-healing  is  a  healing 
of  mind,  or  by  mind;  and  we  have  ventured,  tenta- 
tively, to  amend  her  name  for  it,  by  putting  mind  with 
a  small  "  m."  For  she  cannot,  surely,  be  undertaking 
to  heal  the  Divine  Mind.  And  as  to  mind-healing, 
(with  a  small  "  m  ")  we  have  always  supposed  that 
this  was  the  science  which  they  try  to  get  at  in  luna- 
tic asylums. 

So  it  seems  that  she  must  mean  healing  coming 
from  "  Mind,"  and  that  the  capital  "  M  "  is  right. 
But  then,  what  is  it  that  is  to  be  healed?  Wq  shall 
have  to  go  back  to  the  small  "  m,"  for  she  has  just 
now,  as  often  before,  told  us  clearly  that  "  matter  " 
does  not  exist.  It  is  the  healing  of  mind,  not  in  the 
way  of  doctors  in  asylums,  but  by  Mind.  But  here 
again,  we  run  right  into  the  old  snag,  about  "  mortal 
mind,"  which,  she  says,  "  in  teaching  Christian 
Science,  is  meant  to  designate  that  which  has  no  real 
existence."  One  would  almost  begin  to  fear  that 
"  Christian  Science  "  itself  has  no  real  existence. 

Let  us  then  try  to  examine  if  there  is  not  something 
in  it  which  has  been  puffed  up  by  Mrs.  Eddy  into  this 
great  bubble,  which  with  her  and  her  disciples,  oc- 
cupies the  whole  field  of  view.  We  shall  find  that  all 
that  there  really  is  in  it  has  been  well  known  for  a 
long  time,  and  comes  in  fact  more  or  less  within  the 
experience  of  everyone.  We  all  know  that  imagina- 
tion has  great  power,  and  takes  the  place  of  fact, 
particularly  with  some  people.  And  in  the  matter  of 
our  bodily  ills  and  diseases,  it  has  more  effect  than  in 
almost  anything  else.  Everyone  knows  the  encourage- 
ment and  actual  benefit  which  one  feels  on  being  told 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         83 

that  he  looks  better,  and  the  depression  and  harm  result- 
ing from  hearing  the  contrary.  Bread  pills,  supposed  to 
contain  medicine,  may  do  a  great  deal  of  good.  There 
is  no  need  to  multiply  instances  to  prove  mind-healing 
of  this  kind,  that  is  to  say  the  healing  of  the  functions 
and  even  to  some  extent  of  the  organs  of  the  real,  ac- 
tual and  material  body,  by  the  action  of  the  controlling 
mind ;  for  everyone  grants  it  before  you  begin. 
There  is  no  need  for  adding  to  the  real  evidence,  at 
hand,  a  wild  theory  that  matter  has  no  existence,  or 
another  about  "  mortal  mind,"  which  leaves  us  guess- 
ing whether  you  believe  or  disbelieve  in  its  existence, 
or  are  in  doubt  about  it,  or  whether  you  are,  perhaps, 
merely  trying  to  confuse  us  about  it,  and  pull  the 
wool  over  our  eyes. 

You  may  be  able  to  prove  by  actual  facts  that  you 
can  cure  sick  people  by  making  them  believe  that 
they  are  not  really  sick ;  but  you  cannot  make  them 
really  believe  that  they  have  no  bodies  to  be  sick 
with ;  though  they  may  try  to  do  so,  if  they  are 
told  that  the  whole  thing  goes  together.  And  you 
don't  believe  it  yourself;  for  your  words  are  letting 
out  your  real  belief  all  the  time.  The  fact  is  that 
you  really  believe  and  can't  help  believing  the  same 
as  we  do,  as  to  what  you  call  your  "  Science."  The 
chief  real  difference  between  us  in  the  extent  of  pos- 
sible influence  of  the  mind  (or  soul)  on  the  body ; 
you  maintain  that  it  can  go  farther  than  most  of  us 
are  inclined  to  admit.  Bring  on  whatever  facts  you 
have,  and  your  evidence  as  solid  as  possible.  People 
who  are  really  scientific  are  not  afraid  of  evidence. 

As  to  the  effect  of  what  you  call  "  Mind  "  (that  is 
to  say  God  Himself)  on  the  body,  all  Christians  are 
as   sure   as   you   are   that   this   effect    is   unlimited. 


84  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

God,  as  He  has  created  the  body,  can  destroy  it,  or 
do  anything  that  He  pleases  with  it.  But  the  weak 
point  in  your  theory  is  that  you  can,  according  to 
it,  if  you  are  "  scientific  "  enough,  identify  yourself 
with  this  infinite  ''  Mind  and  produce  the  effect  you 
desire,  independently  of  His  Will.  That  is  what 
seems  to  you  the  strong  point  in  it,  instead  of  the 
weak  one;  but,  in  fact,  it  is  simply  a  weak  and 
foolish,  not  to  say  blasphemous,  attempt  to  climb 
on  to  His  Throne.  But  we  are  not  inclined  to  make 
a  real  difference  between  us  out  of  this;  you  don't 
mean  it,  that  is  all;    at  any  rate,  we  hope  so. 

Well,  let  us  go  on  a  little  farther,  to  see  the  follies 
into  which  a  blind  attempt  to  carry  out  a  so-called 
"  Science  "  may  lead  one.  One  fundamental  difficulty 
with  Mrs.  Eddy,  personally,  seems  to  have  been  that 
she  never  could  conceive  of  the  establishment  by  the 
Creator  of  any  force  or  energy  anywhere  outside  of 
Himself.  It  would  not  suffice  for  her  that  He  could 
control  or  direct  at  any  moment  such  a  force  of 
energy  ;  no,  it  must  all  come  from  Him  directly.  She 
says  that  "  the  universe,  like  man,  is  to  be  interpreted 
by  a  Science  from  its  divine  Principle,  God,  and  then 
it  can  be  understood."  But  apparently  she  cannot 
understand  or  admit  any  action,  though  perfectly  nor- 
mal, regular,  and  in  accordance  with  God's  plan, 
which  He  can  intrust— so  to  speak— to  anything  be- 
sides himself.  So  she  says:  ''Adhesion,  cohesion, 
and  attraction  are  properties  of  Mind.  They  belong 
to  divine  Principle,  and  support  the  equipoise  of  that 
thought-force  which  launched  the  earth  in  its  orbit, 
and  said  to  the  proud  wave,  Thus  far  and  no 
farther.'  " 
Of   course   the   last   part   of   the   above,    with    its 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         85 

"  equipoise,  thought-force,"  etc.,  in  just  the  usual  Ed- 
diaii  stuff;  but  the  idea  mentioned  above,  which 
causes  her  difficulty,  emerges.  She  does  not,  or  will 
not,  admit  that  "  Mind,"  or  God,  could  impart  to 
matter  any  properties  like  "  adhesion,  cohesion  or  at- 
traction." It  seems  to  her,  indeed,  that  matter  can 
neither  act  in  any  way,  nor  oppose  any  obstacle  to 
any  action  on  it,  from  which  she  quite  naturally  con- 
cludes that  it  can  have  no  real  existence.  She  feels 
equally  sure  that  the  same  ought  to  hold  with  regard 
to  spirit  (or  "mind"  with  a  small  m).  But  she  has 
to  account  in  some  way  for  the  "  sick  "  people,  the 
removal  of  whom  is  the  whole  motive  for  her 
"  science,"  so  she  has  to  desperately  fall  back  on 
something  which  she  calls  "  mortal  mind,"  which  is 
neither  God,  nor  anything  created  by  Him.  Of  course 
it  has  no  real  or  actual  existence,  any  more  than 
matter  has ;  but  it  is  just  as  good  to  talk  about  as 
if  it  had.  It  would  seem  that  she  simply  cannot  un- 
derstand or  will  not  admit  that  God  can  lodge  or  im- 
plant any  force  in  His  creation,  and  be  able  to  take 
it  back. 

"  We  tread,"  she  says,  "  on  forces.  Withdraw 
them  and  creation  must  collapse."  She  cannot  con- 
ceive that  God  could  modify  or  change  these  forces, 
even  for  a  moment.  "  Human  knowledge,"  she  says, 
"  calls  them  forces  of  matter.  But  divine  Science  de- 
clares that  they  belong  wholly  to  Divine  Mind."  Of 
course  every  Christian  holds  that  they  do,  and  he 
does  not  need  any  Eddian  Science  to  assure  him  of 
the  fact.  But  that  does  not  prevent  God's  creation 
of  matter,  or  His  implanting  in  it  of  certain  forces ; 
which  may,  while  this  state  of  things,  according  to 
His  will,  continues,  be  called  "  forces  of  matter."    If 


86         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

He  choses  to  "  withdraw  "  them  (of  course  we  can- 
not do  this  of  ourselves)  it  is  not  creation,  but  Ed- 
dian  Science,  which  "  must  collapse."  She  uses  again 
the  word  "  inherent,"  with  the  meaning  of  being 
"  stuck "  inextricably.  She  says  that  these  forces 
are  *'  inherent  "  in  this  Mind,  which  seems  to  mean 
that  if  He  could  let  them  go,  He  could  not  get  them 
back  again,  or  make  any  use  of  them  while  they 
were  gone. 

From  these  false  notions,  she  draws,  but  quite  il- 
logically,  some  startling  conclusions.  ''  The  seasons," 
she  tells  us,  "  will  come  and  go  with  changes  of  time 
and  tide,  cold  and  heat,  latitude  and  longitude." 
(What  she  means  by  this  last  is  not  clear,  unless  she 
is  referring  to  the  slight  variation,  lately  discovered 
by  astronomers,  in  the  position  on  the  earth's  surface 
of  the  terrestrial  pole.  We  hardly  think,  however, 
that  she  had  heard  anything  about  that  for  she 
doesn't  seem  quite  up  to  date  about  astronomy.)  But 
for  some  reason,  not  apparent  to  "  mortal  mind,"  she 
tells  us  that  "  the  agriculturist  will  find  that  these 
changes  cannot  effect  his  crops."  Of  course,  as  it  is, 
if  they  go  on  regularly  or  normally,  they  don't  affect 
his  crops,  for  his  planting,  ploughing,  etc.,  is  done 
in  accordance  with  them.  But  if  even  in  his  "  mortal 
belief,"  there  appeared  to  be  a  big  change  in  cold  or 
heat,  or,  at  any  rate,  if  "  mortal  "  observations  should 
show  such  a  change  in  latitude  that  the  pole  came  and 
settled  down  in  Illinois,  for  example,  even  the  most 
ardent  supporters  of  Mrs.  Eddy  would  hardly,  we 
fear,  be  able  to  believe  that  the  crops  would  not  be 
affected.  The  idea,  if  there  was  any  at  all  in  her 
mind,  seems,  for  the  moment,  to  have  been  that  "  time 
and  tide,  cold  and  heat,  latitude  and  longitude,"  were 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         87 

not  merely  matters  of  ''  mortal  belief ;  "  though  why 
they  should  be  exceptions  to  the  general  rule  about 
"  matter "  does  not  appear.  But  really  it  is  hardly 
worth  while  to  treat  such  stuff  as  this  seriously,  or 
even  jocosely. 

She  continually  hangs  on,  or  as  she  would  say, 
"  adheres,"  in  this  chapter,  to  the  idea  that  natural 
science  is,  with  those  who  believe  in  it,  built  on  the 
false  hypothesis  "  that  matter  is  its  own  lawgiver,"  or 
that  material  conditions  "  are  final  and  overrule  the 
might  of  divine  Mind."  The  plain  and  universal 
Christian  belief  that  God  is  the  author,  creator  and 
preserver — so  long  as  He  chooses — of  all  that  exists, 
she  simply  ignores,  and  blinds  herself  to  everything 
except  her  own  weird  notion  that  the  only  conceivable 
alternative  to  what  she  calls  "  natural  science  "  is  to 
deny  the  actual  existence  of  His  creation  entirely. 

To  escape  from  the  charge  of  pantheism,  naturally 
and  rightfully  made  against  her  doctrine,  Mrs.  Eddy, 
on  her  next  page,  proceeds  to  give  a  definition  of 
pantheism.  She  says :  "  Pantheism  may  be  defined 
as  a  belief  in  the  intelligence  of  matter."  Of  course 
it  may  be  defined  in  this  way,  or  in  any  way  that  one 
may  choose.  But  she  wants  to  give  the  idea  by  this, 
that  such  is  the  universal  and — as  she  would  perhaps 
say,  "  inherent  " — definition  of  it ;  or,  perhaps,  that 
this  is  really  the  only  definition. 

Of  course,  however,  the  etymological  definition  of 
the  word  would  be  got  at  by  taking  the  two  Greek 
words  of  which  it  is  composed  ;  namely  "  Pan,"  which 
means  All,  and  "  Theos  "  which  means  God ;  which 
would  make  it  mean  that  All  is  God ;  or  in  other 
words  that  nothing  exists  except  God,  which  is  a 
brief    statement   of   Mrs.    Eddy's    "  Science."     It   is 


88         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

simply  a  form  or  variety  of  pantheism.  And  it  is 
equally  plain  that  the  definition  which  she  gives  of 
"  pantheism  "  has  nothing  whatever  in  it  of  what  is 
expressed  by  the  two  words  of  which  it  is  composed. 
This  definition  of  hers  does  not  say  t?hat  God  is  all ; 
indeed  it  doesn't  say  anything  about  God  at  all.  It 
simply  says  something  about  matter;  it  doesn't  even 
say  that  matter  is  all;  it  only  mentions  one  particular 
idea  about  it,  namely,  that  it  has  intelligence. 

She  cannot  seem  to  free  herself  from  the  notion 
that  there  are  some  people,  somewhere,  that  are  hold- 
ing this  particular  idea  or  belief  about  matter.  Who 
they  are  does  not  appear.  The  ordinary  materialist 
does  not  have  any  such  idea ;  and  we  have  never 
heard  of  any  Christian  who  does.  Perhaps  Mrs. 
Eddy,  in  the  course  of  her  wanderings,  may  have 
come  across  some  such  people,  and  it  is  possible  that 
she  may  have  been  one  of  them  herself.  And  not 
knowing  what  to  call  them,  she  thinks  that  perhaps 
the  name  of  ''  pantheist "  might  fit  them,  though  she 
does  not  seem  to  know  exactly  what  it  properly  would 
mean. 

A  most  unaccountable  little  remark  appears  shortly 
after  this.  She  says :  "  The  generous  liver  may  ob- 
ject to  the  author's  small  estimate  of  the  pleasures 
of  the  table."  We  are  somewhat  puzzled  to  under- 
stand where  in  her 'book  this  "small  estimate"  is 
to  be  found ;  at  any  rate  to  any  extent  that  the 
"  generous  liver  "  could  object  to  it.  It  would  seem 
rather  funny  for  a  book  on  religion,  as  this  of  hers 
may  be  called,  to  dwell  with  great  enthusiasm  on  the 
pleasures  of  the  table.  We  hardly  see  why  the  most 
'*  generous  liver  "  could  expect  it  to  do  so.  But  most 
spiritual  books  that  we  know  of  treat  more  plainly 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science  89 

of  the  dangers  of  such  pleasures  than  Mrs.  Eddy 
seems  disposed  to  do.  Most  of  them  have  some  good 
word  to  say  for  asceticism;  but  all  she  has  to  say 
about  it,  in  her  long  chapter  on  "  Atonement  and 
Eucharist,"  is  that  "  Jesus  was  no  ascetic,"  which 
seems  to  be  rather  in  favor  of  the  "  generous  liver  " 
than  otherwise.  One  can  hardly  help  wondering 
where  she  has  met  with  these  petty  intellects  who  are. 
as  she  tells  us,  alarmed  at  her  "  constant  appeals  to 
Mind."  One  would  think  that  the  alarm  would  rather 
be  at  finding  in  her  book  so  little  appeal  to  "  mind  " 
(with  a  small  "  m  "). 

But  we  must  pass  on  to  the  next  section,  on  what 
she  calls 

"  Theology." 

In  the  beginning  of  it,  it  is  worth  w^hile  to  notice 
the  calmness  with  which  this  amateur  theologian  fits 
in  any  words  of  Our  Lord,  whether  having  any  re- 
ference to  her  doctrines  or  not,  as  being  an  approval 
by  Him  of  them. 

"  In  reply,"  she  says,  "  to  John's  inquiry  (John  being 
St.  John  Baptist),  'Art  thou  He  that  shall  come?'  Jesus 
returned  an  affirmative  reply,  *Go  and  show  John 
again  those  things  which  you  do  hear  and  see:  the 
blind  receive  their  sight  and  the  lame  walk,  the  lepers 
are  cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are  raised  up, 
and  the  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them.  And 
blessed  is  he,  whosoever  shall  not  be  ofifended  in  Me." 

The  natural  meaning  of  these  words,  obvious  enough 
to  all  of  us,  and  even  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  is  that  by  the 
Divine  power  manifested  in  the  wonderful  works  men- 
tioned, it  was  plain  that  He  Who  worked  them  was 
indeed  the  One  "  that  should  come."    But  all  that  she 


90  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

chooses  to  make  out  of  them  is  merely  that  "  He  gave 
his  benediction  to  anyone  who  should  not  deny  that 
such  effects,  coming  from  divine  Mind,  prove  the 
unity  of  God — the  divine  principle  which  brings  out 
all  harmony." 

She  seizes  what  seems  to  her  a  suitable  occasion  to 
bring  out  her  "Science  "  catch-words  about  "  Mind," 
"  Principle,"  and  "  harmony,"  though  there  is  not  the 
slightest  reference  to  them  in  the  actual  words  of 
Christ.  Of  course  her  justification  for  this  would  be 
that  He  must  have  had  these  catch-words  in  mind, 
though  perhaps  not  very  clearly;  that  He  must  have 
had  an  incipient  idea  about  this  great  revelation  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  (whose  forerunner  He  was)  was  to  bring 
out  much  more  completely.  He  Himself  was  a 
"  student,"  but,  of  course,  a  very  imperfect  one,  in 
her  great  school  of  Eddian  Science.  That  she  assigns 
to  Him  this  place,  so  low  compared  with  her  own,  is 
plain  enough  throughout  her  book. 

A  curious  example  of  the  carelessness  on  her  part 
of  what  does  not  affect  her  own  glory  or  her  pet  no- 
tions, is  to  be  found  soon  after  this.  She  says :  "  This 
righteous  preacher"  (that  is  all  that  St.  John  is  to 
her)  "  once  pointed  his  disciples  to  Jesus  as  'the  Lamb 
of  God,'  yet  afterward  he  seriously  questioned  the 
signs  of  the  Messianic  appearing,  and  sent  the  inquiry 
to  Jesus,  'Art  thou  He  that  should  come  ?'  " 

She  seems  to  forget,  or  not  care  to  notice,  that  the 
occasion  on  which  St.  John  called  Jesus  the  Lamb  of 
God,  was  that  of  Our  Lord's  baptism  by  him,  where 
he  also  testified  that  Jesus  was  He  Who  baptizeth  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  (John  i.  33).  Anyone,  except  Mrs. 
Eddy,  would  see  that,  after  this,  St.  John  did  not 
"  seriously,"  or  in  any  way,  "  question  the  signs  of 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        91 

the  Messianic  appearing ; "  that  he  only  sent  the  in- 
quiry to  Jesus,  "Art  thou  He  that  should  come  ?  "  in 
order  that  our  Blessed  Lord  might  Himself  announce 
that  He  was  indeed  that  One,  with  His  own  Divine 
authority  and  majesty.  But  she  is  so  blinded  by  her 
own  pride  that  she  can't  see  even  the  most  obvious 
things.  What  absurdity  to  suppose  that  St.  John  seri- 
ously questioned  who  our  Divine  Lord  was,  after  he 
had  said  of  Him :  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  behold 
Him  Who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  '* 
(John  i.  29). 

She  actually  proceeds  on  the  next  page  to  make  out 
that  the  healing  of  the  Israelites  (Num.  xxi.  9)  was 
only  a  "  belief  that  they  were  healed."  According  to 
her,  there  was  nothing  the  matter  with  them  before 
the  healing,  except  a  silly  notion  that  snake  bites  were 
injurious,  and  all  that  was  needed  was  to  get  rid  of 
such  a  nonsensical  idea.  We  rather  think  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  always  clung  to  this  notion,  however,  and  would 
not  have  wanted  to  show  its  foolishness  in  her  own 
case  by  any  rash  experiments. 

In  the  next  paragraph  comes  another  wild  imagina- 
tion, that  the  indignation  of  the  Jews  against  Christ 
was  due  to  His  teaching  of  good  orthodox  Eddian 
pantheism.  Again,  on  the  next  page,  she  says: 
"  Denial  of  the  possibility  of  Christian  healing  robs 
Christianity  of  the  very  element  which  gave  it  divine 
force."  Quite  true ;  but  who,  among  Christians,  denies 
this  possibility?  All  that  any  of  us  deny  is  that  you 
can't  cure  sick  people  by  merely  asserting  that  they 
are  not  sick.  It  may  work,  if  there  is  really  not  much 
the  matter  with  them ;  but  if  they  are  just  plain  hyp- 
ochondriacs, it  may  only  make  them  all  the  more  con- 
fident that  they  are  right  and  you  are  wrong. 


92         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

There  is  not  much  in  the  rest  of  this  section  on 
"  Theology  "  which  calls  for  special  comment  or  criti- 
cism. Throughout  the  whole  of  it,  however,  one  finds, 
cropping  out  here  and  there,  her  continual  taking  for 
granted  that  w^hat  she  calls  ''  popular  theology,"  or 
Christianity  as  generally  understood,  teaches  that  God 
has  left  man  entirely  under  the  control  of  the  material 
forces  which  He  has  established,  and  that  He  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  world  which  He  has  created. 
She  insists  on  claiming  as  a  special  discovery  of  her 
own  so-called  "  Science"  that  there  is  or  can  be  any 
"  triumph  of  Spirit,  Mind  over  matter."  According  to 
her,  if  anybody  has  this  idea  at  the  present  day,  they 
got  it  from  her.  If  such  an  idea  existed  at  any 
previous  time,  it  must,  she  imagines,  have  been  lost. 

In  fact,  however,  it  has  always  been  held,  and  is  at 
present  by  all  Christians  who  are  not  merely  nominal 
ones,  that  God  has  now,  as  He  always  has  had,  com- 
plete supremacy  and  control  over  His  whole  universe. 
If  they  had  not  this  belief,  they  would  never  say  a 
prayer.  But  they  actually  do  this,  frequently,  with 
regard  to  all  matters  which  they  cannot  help  seeing, 
that  the  power  which  He  has  committed  to  them- 
selves is  not  sufficient.  They  pray,  of  course,  mainly 
for  spiritual  graces  and  energies  for  the  resisting  of 
sin  and  the  attainment  of  virtue ;  but  they  are  not  in- 
different to  Mrs.  Eddy's  special  hobby  of  "  curing  the 
sick."  Prayers  for  the  sick  are  continually  offered; 
and  such  prayers  would  not  be  offered,  did  not  Chris- 
tians know  that  they  were  frequently  answ^ered.  But 
they  also  believe,  as  their  very  faith  obliges  them  to 
believe,  that  curing  sick  people  in  general,  or  even 
themselves  when  they  are  sick,  is  not  the  most  im- 
portant thing  in  the  world.     They  recognize,  as  Mrs. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         93 

Eddy  apparently  does  not,  that  spiritual  blessings  may 
come  from  bodily  disease;  but  she  considers  disease 
the  one  principal  evil  which  afflicts  us,  and  that  every 
trouble  in  serving  God  that  we  can  suffer  comes  from 
our  being  sick,  or  from  imagining  that  we  are  sick. 

She  certainly  seems  to  hold  that  our  Blessed  Lord's 
great  object  in  this  world  was  to  heal  the  sick ;  or,  as 
she  would  say,  to  rid  them  of  the  dangerous  error  of 
"  mortal  mind  "  that  they  were  sick.  And  yet  it  may 
be  remarked  in  passing,  that  she  herself  seems  to  have 
finally  succumbed  to  this  dangerous  error ;  unless  when 
she  was  about  to  die,  she  still  thought  that  there  was 
nothing  the  matter  with  her,  which  seems  hard  to 
believe. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  on  the  point  of  en- 
tirely avoiding  death,  she  is  rather  non-committal  in 
this  book.  She  says :  "  The  adoption  of  scientific 
religion  and  of  divine  healing  will  ameliorate  sin,  sick- 
ness, and  death."  This  word  "  ameliorate "  is,  of 
course,  somewhat  ambiguous.  But  if  it  only  means 
that  it  will  make  sickness  and  death  easier  or  less 
painful,  why  say  "  scientific,"  or  bring  in  the  words 
"divine  healing?"  Any  kind  of  sincere  religion  will 
"  ameliorate "  sin,  sickness,  and  death.  One  can 
hardly  help  a  lurking  suspicion  that,  when  writing 
these  words,  she  still  thought  it  quite  possible  that 
she  might  die,  after  all,  and  that  it  would  be  well  to 
cast  an  anchor  to  windward  (as  the  saying  is)  if  that 
should  prove  to  be  the  case. 

Let  us  proceed  to  her  views  in  the  next  section, 
called 

"  Medicine." 
Mrs.  Eddy  starts  out  here  with  statements  rather 


94         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

more  wild  and  absurd  than  any  previously  made  by 
her.  We  are  staggered  in  the  very  begininng  by  the 
audacity  of  the  following,  which  she  appears  to 
present  as  an  argument:  "God,"  she  says,  **  being 
All-in-all,  He  made  medicine;  but,"  she  concludes, 
"  that  medicine  was  Mind."  The  rather  important 
premise,  which  she  suppresses,  may  as  well  be  given. 
The  thing  should  read :  "  God,  being  All-in-all,  He 
made  medicine.  But,  being  All-in-all,  He  could  not 
make  anything  outside  of  Himself."  Therefore  that 
medicine  was  Mind  (which  is  her  word  for  God). 
This  suppressed  premise  is,  obviously,  simply  a  denial 
of  the  possibilities  of  Creation.  But  the  first  premise 
becomes  still  more  astounding;  for  it  is  reduced  by 
this  to  the  statement  that  "  God  made  God." 

We  always  understood  that  God  was  self-existent; 
that  He  was  not  "  made  "  at  all.  And  indeed  she  has 
just  acknowledged  this,  herself.  Probably,  however, 
this  was  not  exactly  meant  for  an  argument.  But 
still  she  must  have  had  some  sort  of  idea  in  this 
first  paragraph.  Its  very  first  words  are :  "  Which 
was  first.  Mind  or  medicine?  If  Mind  was  first  and 
self-existent,  then  Mind,  not  matter,  must  have  been 
the  first  medicine."  Of  course  everyone  of  us  who 
believes  in  the  creation  of  matter  holds  that  the 
Creator  exists  prior  to  the  thing  created ;  or  if  she 
chooses  to  put  it  so,  that  Mind  is  the  first  medicine, 
in  the  logical  order  as  well  as  in  that  of  time.  But 
to  infer  from  this  that  Mind  is  the  only  medicine ;  or 
in  other  words,  that  the  creating  Mind  is  unable  to 
give  to  what  He  has  created  any  power  or  effect  to 
do  anything  whatever,  because  He  Himself  could  do 
the  same  thing  without  its  assistance,  by  no  means  fol- 
lows.   And  it  is  not  only  contrary  to  common  sense  and 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         95 

universal  experience,  but  is  also  a  limitation  on  the 
power  of  Mind.  And  yet,  it  is  probable  that  many 
are  deceived  by  such  stuff  as  this.  She  goes  right 
on  with  the  same  kind  of  thing. 

"  It  is  plain,"  she  says,  "  that  God  does  not  em- 
ploy drugs  or  hygiene,  nor  provide  them  for  human 
use."  Really,  however,  that  is  just  the  very  thing 
that  He  does  do.  She  might  just  as  well  say,  that 
God  does  not  provide  anything  for  us  to  eat,  or  at  any 
rate,  that  He  does  not  show  us  how  to  cook  it.  He 
leaves  us  to  find  out  these  things,  like  so  many  others, 
for  ourselves. 

Another  most  obvious  fallacy  meets  us  in  the  very 
next  sentence.  "  The  sick  are  more  deplorably  lost 
than  the  sinning,"  she  says,  "  if  the  sick  cannot  rely 
on  God  for  help  and  the  sinning  can."  What  Chris- 
tian ever  said  that  the  sick  cannot  rely  on  God  for 
help,  when  we  all  pray  to  Him  for  such  help  for 
them?  Also,  this  remark  would  mean  that  it  is  more 
deplorable  to  be  sick,  than  to  be  a  sinner.  This  really 
seems  to  be  her  idea,  as  she  apparently  regards  the 
healing  of  the  sick  (in  the  usual  sense  of  the  word) 
as  Christ's  chief  work  on  earth.  She  absolutely  ig- 
nores the  actual  belief  and  practice  of  Christians  in 
general,  of  using  both  medicine  and  prayer  in  case 
of  illness,  and  insists  that  we  must  cut  out  either  one 
or  the  other.  She  finishes  this  paragraph  with  the 
fine  sounding  (perhaps)  but  utterly  unmeaning  maxim, 
"  The  body  is  not  controlled  scientifically  by  a  nega- 
tive mind."  What  in  the  world  is  meant  by  con- 
trolling the  body  scientifically,  or  by  a  negative  mind  ? 
The  plain  truth  is  that  Christians  use  drugs,  as  well 
as  "  Mind,"  for  the  sick,  because  there  are  the  surest 
indications  that  such,  usually,  is  the  will  of  God. 


96         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

It  is  rather  amusing,  by  the  way,  with  her  great 
desire  and  pretence  to  "  science,"  that  she  does  not 
seem  to  know  what  is  meant  by  "  the  science  (so 
called)  of  physics,"  or  that  it  is  concerned  with  matter 
as  inanimate.  She  seems  to  think  it  is  the  same  as 
that  of  medicine.  This  same  blunder  occurs  five  pages 
further  on.  "The  universal  belief  in  physics,"  she  says 
(meaning  "physic"),  "weighs  against  the  high  and 
mighty  truths  of  Christian  metaphysics,"  which,  she 
soon  tells  us,  is  taught  in  Christian  Science ;  though 
it  is  hard  to  find  it.  She  tells  us  that  in  metaphysics, 
"  matter  disappears  from  the  remedy  entirely,"  not 
realizing  that  ''metaphysics,"  properly  defined,  has 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  "  remedies." 

She  goes  back  a  little  later,  to  a  conundrum  about 
the  drug  business,  already  alluded  to.  "  If  God  creates 
drugs  at  all  and  designs  them  for  medical  use,  why  did 
Jesus  not  employ  them  and  recommend  them  for  the 
treatment  of  disease?"  The  answer  to  this,  from  our 
point  of  view,  is  very  easy.  It  was  simply  that  we 
might  see  the  superiority  of  the  supernatural,  when 
God  wishes  us  to  use  it,  to  the  merely  natural.  But 
there  is  no  evidence  that  He  does  so  wish  all  the  time. 
Indeed  the  human  life  of  Jesus  Himself  was  mainly 
on  natural  lines. 

There  is  just  one  other  little  paragraph  in  this 
chapter  which  may  be  worth  noticing,  for  it  is  really 
too  amusing  to  let  pass.  It  is  as  follows :  "  You 
say,"  she  remarks,  "  a  boil  is  painful ;  but  that  is 
impossible,  for  matter  without  mind  is  not  painful. 
The  boil  simply  manifests,  through  inflammation  and 
swelling,  a  belief  in  pain,  and  this  belief  is  called 
a  boil." 

Everyone,  of  course,  knows  very  well,  that  for  any- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         97 

thing  whatever  to  be  painful,  there  must  be  some  mind 
to  feel  the  pain.  And  that  mind  must  have  a  special 
union  with  the  body  in  which  the  actual  material  boil 
exists ;  you  can't  feel  somebody  else's  boil,  though  of 
course  you  may  easily  see  it.  You  can,  however,  as 
for  example  by  some  local  anaesthetic,  partly  cut  ofif 
the  union  between  body  and  mind  so  that  you  will 
cease  to  feel  your  own  boil,  though  you  know  it  is 
there;  and  that  it  would  be  painful,  if  you  had  not 
cut,  for  the  time  being,  the  connection  between  body 
and  mind.  But  it  is  simply  nonsense  to  say  that  this 
belief  in  pain  is  the  boil.  You  know  it  is  there,  all 
the  time,  just  as  well  as  ever.  There  is  such  a  thing 
as  a  painless  abscess,  which  may  go  on  and  swell  up 
to  a  large  size ;  but  it  isn't  a  "  belief  in  pain,"  for 
there  isn't  any  actual  pain,  or  any  belief  in  the  ex- 
istence of  any.  Isn't  it  astonishing  that  people  can 
be  taken  in  by  such  stuff  as  this? 

Mrs.  Eddy's  remedy  for  a  boil  (and  it  ought  to  work 
just  the  same  for  an  abscess  of  the  kind  just  men- 
tioned) is  to  "  administer  to  the  patient  a  high  at- 
tenuation of  truth."  We  think  that  a  good  solid 
dose  of  truth  and  common  sense  would  be  better  than 
an  ''  attenuation." 

There  is  another  curious  example  in  the  chapter 
of  the  making  of  an  argument  out  of  what  is  merely 
a  theory  of  her  own.  She  takes  for  granted  that  homoe- 
opathy is  the  accepted  school  of  medicine,  and  naturally 
enough  asks,  "  If  drugs  are  an  antidote  to  disease,  why 
lessen  the  antidote?  If  drugs  are  good  things,  is  it 
safe  to  say  that  the  less  in  quantity  you  have  of  them 
the  better?  "  Well,  this  really  is  a  fair  argument 
against  homoeopathy ;  but  it  calmly  ignores  the  fact 
that  most  people  do  not  believe  in  the  latter.     The 


98         The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

present  writer  happened  to  be  brought  up,  as  a  child, 
on  that  system,  and  got  through  various  illnesses  on 
it ;  and  probably  would  have  got  through  them  (as 
he  had  a  good  constitution)  without  any  medicine  at 
all.  But  having  at  one  time  a  rather  severe  attack  of 
fever  and  ague,  the  doctor  (who  was  not  a  very  strict 
practitioner)  concluded,  after  trying  the  little  pellets 
for  quite  a  while,  that  it  might  be  well  to  make  a 
change,  and  gave  him,  to  his  great  surprise,  a  good 
stiff  dose  of  quinine ;  and  the  effect  being  satisfactory, 
kept  on  with  the  same,  which  got  the  trouble  out  of 
his  system,  so  that  it  has  never  returned. 

I  do  not  claim  to  have  refuted  homoeopathy  by  this 
one  fact ;  or  even  by  many  similar  ones  which  might 
be  argued ;  but  it  can  hardly  be  used  as  an  argument 
for  Eddian  Science.  Mrs.  Eddy  is,  however,  probably 
enough  right  in  saying  that  there  is  too  much 
drugging,  and  giving  of  strong  medicines  without 
necessity ;  and  that  harm  results  from  this.  But  this 
is  not  the  same  as  saying  that  drugs  are  never  use- 
ful. And  we  can't  help  suspecting  that  she  may  her- 
self have  kept  a  little  quinine  on  the  sly,  to  be  used 
when  really  needed,  when  her  Science  did  not  seem 
to  w^ork;  or,  as  a  kind  of  short  cut,  to  save  need- 
less strain  on  it. 

In  conclusion  of  this  chapter,  we  can  hardly  pass 
by  the  remark  she  makes  just  at  its  end,  as  follows :  "If 
you  or  I,"  she  says,  "  should  appear  to  die,  we  should 
not  be  dead."  We  don't,  perhaps,  quite  get  the  proper 
force  of  this.  But  we  can't  quite  see  how  it  is  that 
Mrs.  Eddy  is  not  now,  in  the  universally  accepted 
sense  of  the  word,  as  dead  as  a  door  nail.  And  we 
don't  see  why  she  was  so  carefully  boxed  up  in  con- 
crete,  if   it   were   not   to   hide   the   evidence   of   this 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science         99 

fact.  If  it  is  not  a  fact,  it  will  be  rather  awkward. 
Her  next  chapter  is  very  similar  to  this  one.  It  is 
headed 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Physiology. 

We  don't  quite  see  why  Mrs.  Eddy  made  a  special 
chapter  out  of  this.  It  is  the  same  old  hodge-podge 
and  medley,  which  she  has  been  working  on  all  the 
time.  One  idea,  however,  which  comes  in  the  course 
of  it,  has  certainly  some  novelty  and  ingenuity.  She 
says: 

"  If  a  dose  of  poison  is  swallowed  through  mis- 
take, and  the  patient  dies,  even  though  physician  and 
patient  are  expecting  favorable  results,  does  human 
belief,  you  ask,  cause  this  death?  Even  so,  and  as 
directly  as  if  the  poison  had  been  intentionally  taken. 
In  such  cases,"  she  continues,  "  a  few  persons  be- 
lieve the  poison  swallowed  by  the  patient  to  be  harm- 
less, but  the  vast  majority  of  mankind,  though  they 
know  nothing  of  this  particular  case,  and  this  special 
person,  believe  the  arsenic,  the  strychnine,  or  what- 
ever the  drug  used,  to  be  poisonous,  for  it  is  set  down 
as  a  poison  by  mortal  mind.  Consequently,  the  result 
is  controlled  by  the  majority  of  opinions,  not  by  the 
infinitesimal  minority  of  opinions  in  the  sick-chamber." 

Well  this  certainly  opens  the  door  wide  enough  to 
let  in  an  ample  excuse  for  any  failures  in  Eddian 
Science.  But  it  is  hard  to  see  how  she  can  account 
for  its  ever  succeeding,  if  things  are  to  go  in  such  a 
democratic  way,  by  a  majority  vote  in  every  case. 
For  she  now  tells  that  the  patient's  own  opinion,  or 
that  of  his  friends,  counts  for  hardly  anything.    *'  The 


loo       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

result  is  controlled,"  she  says,  "  entirely  by  what 
people  in  general  think,  even  though  unaware  of  the 
particular  case." 

Well,  then,  the  general  belief  is,  for  instance,  that 
a  certain  per  cent  of  people  will  die  if  attacked  by 
typhus  fever,  or  some  other  kind  of  dangerous  dis- 
ease. We  had  supposed  that  there  was  no  danger, 
even  in  such  a  disease,  for  a  good  '  scientific  "  patient, 
especially  in  charge  of  a  good  "  scientific "  prac- 
titioner. But  now  it  appears  that  it  is  only  the 
opinion  of  the  unscientific  crowd  outside  of  the 
charmed  circle  of  Eddian  Science  which  counts.  The 
typhus  fever  is  just  like  the  poisonous  drug.  If 
people  in  general  think  that  your  "  science "  won't 
help  you,  then  it  won't;  that  is  all  there  is  about 
it.  To  conform  to  the  popular  belief,  you  will  have 
to  fall  back  on  the  medicine  or  treatment  that  would 
popularly  be  thought  most  effective.  And  you  would 
not  have  so  good  a  chance,  on  account  of  your  lack 
of  belief  in  it,  as  If  you  belonged  to  the  majority 
yourself.  Your  science  is  an  injury  to  you,  not  a 
help.  It  would  evidently  be  better  to  "  get  on  to  the 
band  wagon."  Better  drop  your  "  science,"  and  be- 
have like  other  people. 

The  "  man  of  straw  "  whom  we  have  to  notice  so 
often,  comes  in  a  few  pages  after  this  with  more 
prominence  than  usual,  though  he  is  lurking  around, 
more  or  less,  all  the  time.  "  To  admit,"  she  says, 
"  that  sickness  is  a  condition  over  which  God  has  no 
control,  is  to  presuppose  that  omnipotent  power  is 
powerless  on  some  occasions."  That  is  obviously 
true;  it  is  just  saying  the  same  thing  in  two  dif- 
ferent ways.  But  what  Christian  "  admits  "  anything 
of  the  kind? 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       loi 

It  would  seem  that  she  simply  cannot  get  rid  of  the 
idea  that  the  Christian  faith,  as  usually  held,  teaches 
that  matter  has  its  own  laws,  and  that  God  has  noth- 
ing- to  do  with  them.  She  must  have  got  this  notion 
in  her  early  days  from  hearing  that  the  age  of 
miracles  has  passed,  and  has  understood  it  as  being 
a  sort  of  polite  way  of  saying  that  there  never  was 
any  such  age,  and  that  there  could  never  have  been 
any. 

So  she  thinks  that  she  has  entirely  knocked  out  the 
underpinning  from  the  ordinary  unscientific  Christian, 
by  remarking  that  the  senses  and  all  other  indica- 
tions of  life  disappear  when  the  body  is  left  with- 
out a  mind  to  control  it ;  as  if  anyone  ever  imagined 
that  they  were  a  consequence  of  its  simply  material 
formation.  "  If  we  take  away  this  erring  mind,"  she 
gravely  says,  "  the  mortal  material  body  loses  all  ap- 
pearance of  life  or  action,  and  this  so-called  mind 
then  calls  itself  dead."  "Calls  itself  dead?"  What 
Christian  calls  it  so?  He  simply  calls  his  body  dead, 
because  he  knows  that  it  cannot,  by  its  merely  ma- 
terial formation,  exercise  the  vital  powers  which  the 
soul  can  produce  in  it  when  united  to  it. 

She  ventures,  later  on,  to  go  a  step  further.  She 
seemingly  is  not  able  to  get  the  idea  that  even  the 
Creator  can  give  any  energy  to  matter  without  giving 
it  intelligence  in  the  use  of  that  energy ;  and  that 
nobody  could,  for  a  moment,  suppose  such  a  thing 
to  be  possible.  She  actually  says  in  her  next  chapter : 
"  Material  substances  or  mundane  functions,  astronom- 
ical calculations,  and  all  the  paraphernalia  of  specu- 
lative theories,  based  on  the  hypothesis  of  material 
law  or  life  and  intelligence  resident  in  matter  "  (as  if 
these  two,  "  law  "  and  "  intelligence,"  were  identical 


102       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

or  inseparable),  "will  ultimately  vanish,  swallowed 
up  in  the  infinite  calculus  of  Spirit." 

But  there  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  suppose  that 
this  "  infinite  calculus  of  Spirit,"  whatever  it  may  be, 
will'  make  any  difference  whatever  in  the  laws  which 
Spirit  has,  in  His  infinite  wisdom,  laid  down  for  mat- 
ter ;  to  remain  permanently,  unless  He  chooses  to  de- 
stroy it  altogether.  The  planets,  as  one  would  think 
even  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  would  have  seen,  have  not 
"  mortal  minds  "  to  vitiate  our  calculations  on  them. 

This  strange  notion  that  she  somehow  got  into  her 
head,  that  the  material  laws,  which  the  wisdom  of  the 
Creator  laid  down  for  the  material  part  of  His  crea- 
tion, are  only  something  trumped  up  by  "  mortal 
mind,"  instead  of  being  actual  facts,  discovered  with 
God's  help,  by  it,  is  probably  the  cause  and  the  ex- 
planation of  most  of  her  vagaries.  But  the  strange 
thing  is  that  she  has  been  able  to  impose  this  foolish 
notion  on  so  many  whom  one  would  suppose  to  be 
fairly  intelligent  people. 

But  without  wasting  any  more  time  on  this  chapter, 
which  is  mainly  a  mere  repetition  of  what  she  had 
previously  tried  to  impose  on  our  common  sense,  let 
us  pass  on  to  the  next,  which  she  calls 

"  Footsteps  of  Truth." 

Our  old  acquaintance,  the  "  straw  man,"  makes  his 
appearance  rather  early  in  this.  She  says :  "  Graft- 
ing holiness  upon  unholiness,  supposing  that  sin  can 
be  forgiven  when  it  is  not  forsaken,  is  as  foolish  as 
straining  out  gnats  and  swallowing  camels." 

This  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  relic  of  the  Lutheran 
theology,  in  which  she  must,  we  suppose,  have  been 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       103 

brought  up,  and  which,  as  she  imagines,  is  the  regular, 
orthodox,  or  historical  teaching  of  the  Christian 
Church.  She  does  not  seem  to  know  that  it  has  been 
practically  abandoned  long  ago,  or  that  it  is  generally 
recognized  now  that  for  sin  to  be  forgiven,  it  must  be 
forsaken,  at  any  rate  in  the  serious  intention  and  pur- 
pose of  the  sinner ;  though  the  complete  carrying  out 
of  this  intention  may,  on  account  of  human  frailty,  be 
realized  only  by  a  few.  But  what  connection  it  has 
with  her  special  Eddian  views,  is  not  at  all  clear,  un- 
less it  be  that  for  a  real  genuine  "  scientist,"  it  is 
impossible  to  commit  even  the  smallest  sin.  She  might 
perhaps  have  said  that  if  a  "  scientist "  does  some- 
times fall  into  sin,  it  is  because  he  has  not  yet  thor- 
oughly mastered  his  "  science,"  or  got  thoroughly  ''  in 
accord  with  the  divine  Principle  of  his  being ;  "  to  use 
her  own  words,  which  one  finds  a  little  later. 

But  of  course  this  is  just  what  the  Christian  Church 
has  always  said,  though  it  doesn't  use  these  catch- 
words about  "  Science,"  and  "  Principle  of  being."  It 
is  only  by  the  Divine  union,  which  Christ  came  to  ob- 
tain for  us,  that  sin  can  be  overcome.  That  is  what 
He  chiefly  came  for,  to  heal  not  our  bodies,  but  our 
souls.  To  heal  a  bodily  illness,  and  to  hope  by  that 
to  heal  sin,  the  illness  of  the  soul,  is  to  put  the  cart 
before  the  horse.  When  "  Immortal  man  "  to  use  her 
words,  does  get  "  thoroughly  in  accord  with  the  divine 
Principle  of  his  being,"  it  is  quite  true  that  "  he  neither 
sins,  suffers,  nor  dies."  But  that  is  no  Eddian  dis- 
covery;   the  Church  has  taught  that  all  along. 

She  says :  "  We  rely  on  a  drug  to  heal  disease,  as 
if  senseless  matter  had  more  power  than  omnipotent 
Spirit."  If  we  "  relied  on  a  drug  "  to  get  rid  of  sin, 
she  would  be  quite  justified  in  this  criticism.    But  as 


104       ^^^^  Truth  'About  Christian  Science 

things  actually  are,  God  has  left  the  body  largely  in 
the  control  of  His  own  material  laws,  which  have  not 
lost  their  efficacy  by  our  soul-sickness,  and  which  will 
work  without  being  affected  by  it.  Their  working  may 
be  more  effectual  if  the  soul-sickness  is  more  or  less 
cured  ;  but  that  is  not  because  they  themselves  work 
in  any  different  way,  but  because  we  interfere  less  with 
their  work. 

She  says,  in  the  next  paragraph  :  "  Common  opinion 
admits  that  a  man  may  take  cold  in  the  act  of  doing 
good."  It  would  be  better  to  put  "  common  sense  " 
instead  of  "  common  opinion,"  for  there  is  no  doubt 
whatever  that  such  a  thing  may  happen.  It  is  not,  of 
course,  that  his  doing  good  makes  him  take  cold,  but 
that  in  doing  it  he  runs  against  some  natural  law,  the 
effect  of  which  God  does  not  choose  to  nullify,  though 
in  some  other  way  He  may  compensate  for  it. 

To  take  a  practical  example.  If  a  man  sees  a  burn- 
ing fuse  attached  to  a  barrel  of  gunpowder,  he  will 
do  a  good  act  by  trying  to  put  it  out.  He  may  not 
succeed,  and  the  result  may  be  that  he  will  be  blown 
up,  whereas  he  might  have  saved  himself  by  running 
away  in  time.  Or  a  man  may  be  drowned  in  trying  to 
save  another  man,  who  might  have  saved  himself  if 
he  had  been  left  alone.  It  is  quite  evident,  in  such 
cases,  and  many  others  which  might  be  adduced,  that 
what  Mrs.  Eddy  calls  "  evil  "  does  "  check  the  reward 
for  doing  good,"  in  spite  of  her  saying,  "as  if  evil 
could  overbear  the  law  of  Love." 

The  fact  is,  that  "  common  opinion  "  though  ad- 
mitting, as  she  says,  that  such  a  thing  may  happen, 
holds  that  the  man  who  suffers  for  his  heroism,  gets 
from  God  a  reward  better  than  the  one  which  he  has 
Igst     "  In  the  Science  of  Christianity,"   Mrs.   Eddy 


Tlic  Truth  About  Christian  Science        105 

says,  "Mind  assigns  sure  rewards  to  righteousness;" 
but  it  does  not  show  "  that  matter  cannot  make  sick 
nor  destroy."  She  lugs  in  "  create ;  "  but  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word  every  Christian  agrees  to  that. 

She  goes  on  with  more  of  the  same  sort  of  stuff. 
"  We  are  prone,"  she  says,  "  to  believe  in  more  than 
one  Supreme  Ruler."  Excuse  me,  but  whatever  Mrs. 
Eddy  may  confess  as  to  herself,  Christians  in  general, 
are  not  prone  to  believe  that  at  all.  And  she  goes  on, 
as  if  it  were  all  the  same  thing,  "  or  in  some  power 
less  than  God."  We  are  "  prone  "  to  believe  in  that, 
which  is  quite  a  different  matter.  But  we  do  not  be- 
lieve that  there  is  any  power  not  completely  subject 
to  God. 

"  When  the  material  body  has  gone  to  ruin,"  she 
continues,  "  when  evil  has  overtaxed  the  belief  of  life 
in  matter  and  destroyed  it,  then  mortals  believe  that 
the  deathless  Principle,  or  soul,  escapes  from  matter 
and  lives  on ;  but  this  is  not  true."  Well  if  this  is 
not  true,  it  seems  to  be  a  bad  lookout  for  all  of  us, 
including  Mrs.  Eddy.  It  really  seems  strange  that  she 
should  have  said — or  at  any  rate  written — a  thing  like 
that.  But  perhaps  she  really  did  not  expect  even  to 
seem  to  die. 

The  straw  man  soon  pokes  his  head  out  again. 
**  Befogged  in  error,"  she  says  (the  error  of  be- 
lieving that  matter  can  be  intelligent  for  good  or  evil), 
"  we  can  catch  clear  glimpses  of  God  only  as  the  mists 
disperse."  We  wonder  if  Mrs.  Eddy  ever  had  the 
belief  that  "  matter  can  be  intelligent."  We  never 
heard  of  anyone  else  that  had  it.  There  seems  to  be 
a  good  deal  of  "  befogging  "  about  what  she  writes ; 
perhaps  this  was  just  a  specimen  of  it.  Perhaps  the 
straw  man,  after  all,  was  just  herself. 


io6        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

Really,  it  is  hard  to  plough  through  such  a  mass 
of  stuff  as  we  find  in  this  chapter,  where  almost  every 
paragraph  is  either  a  truism  or  an  absurdity,  and 
hardly  any  sentence  has  any  connection  with  the  one 
which  preceded  it.  We  must  just  quote  one  choice 
and  good-sized  gem  of  unmeaning  nonsense : 

"  The  spiritual  reality  is  the  scientific  fact  in  all 
things.  The  spiritual  fact,  repeated  in  the  action  of 
man  and  the  whole  universe,  is  harmonious  and  is  the 
ideal  of  Truth.  Spiritual  facts  are  not  inverted ;  the 
opposite  discord,  which  bears  no  resemblance  to 
spirituality,  is  not  real.  The  only  evidence  of  this 
inversion  is  obtained  from  suppositional  error,  which 
affords  no  proof  of  God,  Spirit,  or  of  the  spiritual 
creation.  Material  sense  defines  all  things  materially, 
and  has  a  finite  sense  of  the  infinite." 

We  defy  anyone  to  make  any  "  material  sense,"  or 
any  kind  of  sense,  out  of  this. 

Here  is  another  little  gem :  "  The  immanent  sense 
of  Mind-power  enhances  the  glory  of  Mind.  Near- 
ness, not  distance,  lends  enchantment  to  this  view." 
Another :  "  Because  immortal  sense  has  no  error  of 
sense,  it  has  no  sense  of  error;  therefore  it  is  with- 
out a  destructive  element."  Probably  that  was  the 
trouble  with  Mrs.  Eddy.  We  have  often  wondered 
what  was  the  matter  with  her.  It  must  be  that  she 
had  "  immortal  "  sense,  though  what  that  is  is  not 
plain  to  those  of  us  who  just  have  the  common  or 
"  garden  "  variety.  So,  even  when  she  fell  into  the 
most  glaring  errors,  she  had  no  sense  by  which  to 
detect  them.  She  had  nothing  in  her  destructive 
of  them,  as  most  other  people  have. 

This  childish  stuff  about  "  intelligence  in  matter  " 
reappears  in  the  very  next  paragraph  to  this :    *'  If 


TJic  Truth  About  Christian  Science        107 

brains,  nerves,  stomach,"  she  says  with  apparent 
seriousness,  "  are  intelligent — if  they  talk  to  us,  tell 
us  their  condition,  and  report  how  they  feel  " — well, 
that  will  do  before  going  on.  It  is  simply  astonish- 
ing that  anyone  can  be  impressed  in  any  way  except 
disgust  by  such  stuff  as  this.  She  might  just  as  well 
say,  "  if  a  clock  is  intelligent,  if  it  can  tell  us  the 
time  of  day,  or— if  it  has  an  alarm — can  inform  us  of 
a  terrible  convulsion  going  on  in  its  vitals,"  etc.  No 
one,  except  Mrs.  Eddy,  was  ever  so  foolish  as  to 
imagine  that  this  would  show  any  "  intelligence  "  in  a 
clock.  It  does  show,  of  course,  intelligence  in  the 
person  who  designed  or  made  the  clock.  It  is  the 
familiar  "  argument  from  design,"  which  is  used  by 
Paley,  and  a  host  of  others.  If  one  finds  a  watch 
lying  around  in  some  desert  place,  no  sensible  per- 
son imagines  that  it  just  happened  to  grow  there, 
or  to  be  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms,  but  naturally 
feels  sure  that  somebody  made  it,  and  for  the  express 
purpose  of  keeping  time ;  and  that  somebody  had  it, 
and  lost  it  or  threw  it  away.  But  no  one  would  think 
for  a  moment  that  the  watch,  so  found,  must  be  an 
*'  error  of  mortal  mind,"  and  couldn't  possibly  be  real, 
for  if  it  were,  it  would  show  "  intelligence  in  matter." 
And  indeed,  it  doesn't  seem  possible  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
herself  really  took  any  stock — except  in  a  literal 
pecuniary  way — in  nonsense  like  this.  In  that  way,  of 
course,  perhaps  she  did.  She  may  have  thought  it 
might  impose  on  some  one,  and  help  to  sell  her  book ; 
especially  if  dressed  up  in  some  high  sounding  words, 
like  the  following,  which  immediately  follow  those 
quoted  from  her  in  the  beginning  of  this  "  gem." 
"  If,"  etc.,  she  continues,  "  then  Spirit  and  matter. 
Truth  and  error,  commingle  and  produce  sickness  and 


io8        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

health,  good  and  evil,  life  and  death ;  and  who  shall 
say  whether  Truth  or  error  is  the  greater  ?  " 

One  doesn't  like  to  accuse  anyone — especially  a 
lady — of  a  deliberate  attempt  to  deceive  in  important 
matters,  or  of  committing  any  other  grave  moral 
fault ;  but  really  it  does  seem  impossible  that  anyone, 
however  stupid,  could  get  so  much  "  befogged  in 
error  "  as  to  write  anything  of  this  kind,  and  be  de- 
luded by  it  himself. 

A  page  or  so  later  on  there  is  a  passage  which  calls 
for  more  serious  attention  than  those  which  we  have 
quoted;  though  it  begins  with  the  same  stupidity 
about  "  intelligence  in  matter."  But  on  the  whole,  it  is 
a  sort  of  "  lucid  interval  "  in  her  usual  raving. 

"  If  it  is  true,"  she  remarks,  "  that  nerves  have 
sensation,  that  matter  has  intelligence,  that  the  ma- 
terial organism  causes  the  eyes  to  see  and  the  ears  to 
hear,  then,  when  the  body  is  dematerialized,  these 
faculties  must  be  lost,  for  their  immateriality  is  not  in 
Spirit,  whereas  the  fact  is  that  only  through  dema- 
terialization  and  spiritualization  or  thought  can  these 
faculties  be  conceived  of  as  immortal." 

There  is  undoubtedly  a  mystery  here,  which,  how- 
ever, what  Mrs.  Eddy  says  does  not  at  all  help  to 
clear  up.  Of  course  nobody  pretends  that  matter  has 
intelligence,  as  we  have  said  all  along.  All  that  mat- 
ter does  in  the  cases  which  she  mentions,  as  far  as  we 
can  as  yet  discover,  is  to  form  a  picture  on  the  re- 
tina of  the  eye,  or  a  vibration  in  the  drum  of  the 
ear ;  but  how  the  mind  can  get  hold  of  this  picture  or 
vibration  any  better  than  it  can  of  the  actual  objects 
outside  which  they  reproduce,  is  not  evident,  and  per- 
haps never  will  be,  in  this  world. 

The  mystery  of  the  transit  from  matter  to  mind  re- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        109 

mains  the  same  as  it  was.  And  it  is  certainly  true 
that  when  the  connection  between  the  two  is  broken 
by  death,  we  do  not  at  present  understand  what  can 
take  its  place.  The  trouble,  of  course,  is  that  all  our 
knowledge  of  matter  is  obtained  by  the  senses,  which, 
however,  being  a  Divine  gift  to  us,  cannot,  when  work- 
ing normally,  deceive  us.  But  what  right  have  we  to 
assert  that  God  cannot  or  will  not  substitute  some- 
thing else  beside  the  senses  to  which  we  are  ac- 
customed to  make  this  transit  for  us,  with  even  a 
more  perfect  security  from  error  than  what  they  now 
afford?  It  therefore  is  not  true  that  when  they  are 
gone,  the  faculties  which  they  now  give  must  be  lost. 
What  are  we  thus  to  set  limits  to  the  power  of  the 
Omnipotent?  A  faculty  is  not  lost  when  it  is  im- 
proved. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  of  course,  wants  to  prove  that  these 
faculties  or  senses  do  not,  now,  give  us  any  true  in- 
formation ;  as  if  they  were  not  given  to  us  from  God, 
but  something  which  we  ourselves  had  invented  by 
"  mortal  mind."  If  this  last  were  really  the  case, 
it  would  be  quite  true  that  they  could  not  be  depended 
on ;  but  the  fact  is  that  our  experience  in  using  them, 
by  the  harmony  or  accordance  of  its  results,  shows  us 
the  Source  from  which  they  have  come.  So,  in  try- 
ing to  exalt  "  Mind  "  by  denying  the  existence  of  mat- 
ter, she  really  is  insulting  (or  blaspheming)  "  Mind," 
by  accusing  it  of  falsehood  and  deceit. 

This  false  idea  of  hers  about  matter  makes  her  write 
paragraphs  like  the  following :  "  Mortals  have  a 
modus  of  their  own,  undirected  and  unsustained  by 
God.  They  produce  a  rose  through  seed  and  soil,  and 
bring  the  rose  into  contact  with  the  olfactory  nerves 
that  they  may  smell  it." 


no       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

Well,  this  is  certainly  quite  an  achievement,  to  pro- 
duce a  rose  unsustained  by  God.  But  we  did  not  know 
that  it  could  be  done.  She  goes  on.  "  In  legerdemain 
and  credulous  frenzy,  mortals  believe  that  unseen 
spirits  produce  the  flowers."  We  have  never  met  mor- 
tals of  this  kind.  They  can't  be  very  common.  We 
wonder  who  they  were.  Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to  have  had 
some  strange  acquaintances. 

In  the  remainder  of  the  chapter,  she  goes  maunder- 
ing on,  very  much  on  the  same  old  lines  as  usual.  Oc- 
casionally she  makes  a  funny  slip,  like  one  a  few 
pages  further  on,  in  which  she  seems  to  think  that 
''  infinity  "  and  "  finity  "  (a  term  which  she  seems  to 
have  invented)  refer  to  size.  "  Remember,"  she  says, 
"  that  truth  is  greater  than  error,  and  that  we  cannot 
put  the  greater  into  the  less ;  "  seemingly  having  in 
mind  the  old  saying,  that  "  you  cannot  put  a  quart 
into  a  pint-pot."  ''  Soul  is  Spirit,  and  Spirit  is  greater 
than  body.  If  Spirit  were  once  within  the  body,  Spirit 
would  be  finite,  and  therefore  could  not  be  Spirit," 
she  sagely  remarks;  as  if  spirit  had,  like  body,  its 
geometrical  dimensions. 

She  makes,  however,  in  this  chapter  and  the  one 
preceding,  some  practical  cautions  about  not  paying 
too  much  attention  to  ailments  by  rules  or  theories 
of  diet,  or  hygiene.  She  carries  them  rather  too  far 
sometimes  in  the  book,  probably  rather  farther  than 
in  her  own  personal  practice;  from  what  she  writes 
one  might  infer  that  she  never  took  a  bath,  used  a 
flesh  brush,  or  (perhaps)  even  a  toothbrush.  But  still 
it  may  be  that  in  these  times  this  sort  of  thing  may 
receive  more  attention  than  it  really  deserves.  A  good 
deal  of  this  self-doctoring,  as  it  may  be  called,^ 
probably  has  come  from  the  little  books,  especially 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        iii 

popular  among  homoeopaths,  in  which  they  are  in- 
structed what  particular  little  pellet  is  the  right  one 
to  take  for  every  symptom  which  may  be  noticed. 
By  means  of  these  one  can  always  feel  sure,  if  skilled 
in  consulting  the  book,  that  this  calls  for  *'  Bryonia," 
or  that  for  "  Pulsatilla."  The  best  general  practical 
rule,  probably,  is  not  to  mind  about  trifling  ailments, 
and  when  more  serious  ones  occur  to  send  for  a  doc- 
tor, who  understands  the  causes  of  them  better  than 
you  do  by  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
ject. To  worry  about  every  little  symptom  is  a  mts- 
take,  as  surely  as  it  would  be  to  kick  the  doctor  over- 
board altogether.  Only,  if  one  confines  oneself  to  very 
small  pills  of  medicine  which  is  much  diluted,  it  would 
really  seem  that  it  cannot  do  much  harm ;  and  by 
bringing  "  mind  "  to  the  rescue,  may  secure,  to  a  great 
extent,  all  the  good  which  can  be  got  from  "  Christian 
Science." 

But  there  is  not  much  practical  danger  of  quiddling, 
as  it  may  be  called,  too  much,  in  the  matter  of  soul- 
sickness,  which  is  commonly  called  "sin."  Mrs. 
Eddy,  however,  thinks  that  the  right  course  about 
this,  as  in  body-sickness,  is  (to  use  her  own  words)  to 
"  hold  yourself  superior  "  to  it.  "  To  hold  yourself 
superior  to  sin,"  she  tells  us,  "  is  true  wisdom."  The 
trouble  about  this,  however,  is  that  it  isn't  of  any  use 
to  "  hold  yourself  "  superior  to  it,  unless  you  really 
are  so.  Simply  to  pretend  to  yourself  that  you  are  in 
this  blessed  condition,  in  which  we  all  hope,  some  day, 
to  be,  is  of  no  more  use  than  to  make  the  same  pre- 
tence to  others,  and  is  even  more  harmful  to  spiritual 
health. 

She  gives  what  looks  like  good  spiritual  advice  be- 
fore ending  the  chapter,  saying :    "  You  must  control 


112        The  Tniih  About  Christian  Science 

evil  thoughts  in  the  first  place  or  they  will  control 
you  in  the  second."  But  it  is  rather  spoiled  by  what 
she  says  a  little  later ;  that  "  evil  thoughts  and  aims 
reach  no  farther  and  do  no  more  harm  than  anyone's 
belief  permits."  What  belief  has  to  do  with  the  mat- 
ter is  not  clear  to  persons  unlearned  in  Eddian  Science. 
Those  who  are  learned  in  real  spiritual  science  would, 
for  "  belief,"  substitute  "  will." 

She  gives,  however,  the  following  very  good  advice 
with  regard  to  the  education  of  children :  "  The 
teachers  of  schools  and  the  readers  in  churches  should 
be  selected  with  as  direct  reference  to  their  morals 
as  to  their  learning  or  their  correct  reading."  (This 
is  all  right,  except  that  it  is  not  the  general  practice, 
as  yet,  to  have  readers  in  churches,  other  than  their 
regular  pastors ;  but  if  there  are  to  be  readers,  who 
are  simply  to  read  passages  of  Scripture  or  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  substitute  for  it,  the  only  matter  of  much  im- 
portance would  seem  to  be  that  they  should  know  how 
to  read  them  correctly.) 

But  she  hits  the  nail  squarely  on  the  head,  when 
she  says  that  "  school  examinations  are  one-sided ; 
it  is  not  so  much  academic  education,  as  a  moral  and 
spiritual  culture,  which  lifts  one  higher."  This  is  just 
what  Christians  in  general  have  been  saying  for  a 
long  time.  The  only  thing  that  we  want  to  be  sure 
of  is  that  the  culture  is  really  and  genuinely  moral 
and  spiritual. 

One  little  "  gem,"  which  she  gives  us  a  few  pages 
later,  is  worth  quoting.  She  tells  us  of  a  woman  who, 
"  disappointed  in  love  in  her  early  years,  became  in- 
sane and  lost  all  account  of  time."  It  appears,  how- 
ever, that  her  insanity  made  her  fail  to  realize  that  the 
lover  could  not  now  be  expected  to  turn  up;   and  as 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       113 

she  had  lost  all  account  of  the  time  during  which  he 
had  not  done  so,  she  had  a  constant  state  of  agree- 
able expectation  that  he  would  appear,  at  any  and 
every  moment,  and  so  did  not  worry  about  him  at  all. 
She  actually,  as  we  are  told,  looked  the  same  when 
seventy-four  years  old  as  she  did  in  youth.  Well,  of 
course  this  was  rather  extraordinary ;  but  it  may  be 
conceded  that  such  an  unusual  thing  might  happen, 
and  the  explanation  she  gives  of  it  is  not  so  bad.  As 
Mrs.  Eddy  wisely  remarks  "  impossibilities  never  oc- 
cur." "  One  instance  like  the  foregoing,"  she  says, 
"  proves  it  possible  to  be  young  at  seventy-four." 

But  now  notice  the  sudden  leap  which  she  makes 
from  the  possible  to  the  regular  or  normal.  "  The  pri- 
mary (whatever  that  means)  of  that  illustration  makes 
it  plain  that  decrepitude  is  not  according  to  law." 
Common  sense  would  say  that  it  is  plain  from  our 
regular  or  normal  experience,  that  decrepitude  is,  in 
fact,  according  to  law,  and  that  this  case  which  she 
produces  was  a  very  extraordinary  exception. 

"  Never  record  ages,"  she  says.  "  Chronological 
data  are  no  part  of  the  vast  forever."  Practically,  for 
some  purpose  at  any  rate,  this  advice  is  quite  good, 
and  ladies  (and  gentlemen  too)  may  prudently  fol- 
low it. 

She  goes  on  to  say:  "Life  is  eternal.  We  should 
find  this  out,  and  begin  the  demonstration  thereof." 
She  carried  out  her  own  advice,  and  did  begin  the 
demonstration ;  but  it  so  happened  that  she  "  lost  the 
thread  of  her  discourse."  This  sometimes  is  the  case 
with  demonstrations  which  really  are  good  ones ;  so 
perhaps  it  was  only  an  accident  with  her,  after  all. 

She  tells  us  that  "men  and  women  of  riper  years 
and  larger  lessons  ought  to  ripen  into  health  and  im- 


114       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

mortality,  instead  of  lapsing  into  darkness  and  gloom." 
But  if  the  author  of  the  science  which  ought  to  pro- 
duce glorious  results  did  not  succeed  so  well  as  lots 
of  people  who  were  quite  ignorant  of  it,  it  does  not 
seem  to  be  a  very  convincing  argument  for  that 
science. 

\\e\\,  perhaps  we  may  now  be  allowed  to  pass  on 
to  her  next  chapter,  which  would  seem  from  its  title, 
to  be  getting  somewhat  nearer  to  the  real  issues  in- 
volved in  her  remarkable  theories.     It  is  called 


CHAPTER  IX. 
Creation. 

Instead  of  tackling  at  once,  as  we  might  expect, 
the  usual  or  orthodox  ideas  about  creation,  and  show- 
ing the  superiority  of  her  own,  Mrs.  Eddy  starts  out 
in  it  by  a  sort  of  vague  discussion  of  the  Christian 
dogma  of  the  Incarnation,  which  seems  to  be  rather 
irrelevant.  In  this  she  gives  a  little  slap,  by  the  way 
as  it  were,  at  that  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  On  this  last 
she  does  not  spend  much  ink  or  time.  She  contents 
herself  by  saying:  ''The  theory  of  three  persons  in 
one  God  (that  is,  a  personal  Trinity  or  Tri-unity)  sug- 
gests polytheism;  rather  than  the  one  ever-present 
/  Am.    'Hear  Israel :  The  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord.'  " 

This  one  little  slap  or  snap  she  seems  to  think  quite 
enough  to  dispose  at  once  of  the  arguments  made  long 
ago  by  the  greatest  minds  of  the  time  (and  indeed  of 
all  time)  to  show  that  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity  does 
not  mean  polytheism.  "  It  suggests  polytheism,"  she 
says,  "  at  any  rate  it  suggests  it  to  me,  and  of  course 
no  one  can  see  anything  else  in  it,  if  I  don't." 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        115 

She  evidently  has  no  idea  or  knowledge  whatever  of 
the  profound  examinations  of  the  dogma  made  for 
several  centuries  by  St.  Athanasius  and  the  other  great 
Doctors  of  the  Church  against  Arius  and  his  partisans ; 
in  which  incomparably  mo^e  ability  was  shown  on  both 
sides  of  the  question  than  poor  Mrs.  Eddy  could  ever 
by  any  possibility  have  had.  If  she  had  said:  "I, 
though  a  comparatively  ignorant  person,  have  received 
a  special  revelation,  showing  to  me,  and  to  the  world 
through  me,  that  this  dogma  of  the  Trinity,  so  long 
held  by  the  immense  majority  in  the  Church,  is 
erroneous,"  she  might  have  had  something  to  rest  on. 
She  might  have  been  asked  to  give  some  evidence  to 
prove  the  fact  of  her  revelation,  but  that  might  have 
been  managed  well  enough  to  satisfy  a  good  many. 
But  no ;  this  little  snap  is  all  that  she  deems  necessary. 

She  does,  however,  condescend  to  go  on  to  show  that 
no  one  appearing  to  be  a  man  like  others,  could  pos- 
sibly have  been  God.  "  The  everlasting  I  Am,"  she 
says,  "  is  not  bounded  nor  compressed  within  the  nar- 
row limits  of  physical  humanity."  Again  the  notion 
into  which  she  is  prone  to  fall,  that  infinity  is  a 
matter  of  size,  shows  itself.  She  goes  on :  "  Nor  can 
He  be  understood  aright  through  mortal  concepts." 
We  quite  agree  with  this  last.  But  probably  an  ex- 
ception would  have  to  be  made  in  favor  of  Mrs. 
Eddy,  as  she  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  "  immortal 
Mind,"  and  had  shaken  off  the  false  notions  of  mortal 
mind  (with  a  small  "m").  But  as  to  the  everlasting 
I  Am  not  being  "  bounded  or  compressed  within  the 
narrow  limits  of  physical  humanity,"  no  one  who  be- 
lieves in  the  Incarnation  ever  entertains  any  such 
idea;  nor  would  she,  if  she  could  stop  thinking  of 
infinity  as  being  a  matter  of  size. 


ii6       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

The  fact  is,  as  she  sees  well  enough,  that  this  is  a 
matter  which  cannot  be  "  understood  aright  through 
mortal  concepts ;  "  especially  by  any  to  which  she 
has  been  accustomed.  But  she  has  nothing  to  offer 
in  place  of  these.  It  seems  to  her  that  if  a  spirit  of 
any  kind  is  to  be  put  into  a  body,  the  body  must  be 
fitted  to  it,  as  a  coat  is  to  a  man.  This  is  conceivable, 
and  perhaps  she  regards  it  as  our  regular  "  concept  " 
of  the  matter.  ''  But,"  she  would  say,  "  God  is  in- 
finitely too  large  for  anything  like  that  to  be  possible. 
No  material  body  could  be  big  enough  for  Him.'  So," 
she  would  tell  us,  "  the  Incarnation,  or  Divinity  of 
Christ,  as  taught  by  Christians,  must  be  rejected." 

Well,  she  can  of  course  reject  it,  if  she  chooses. 
But  she  cannot  very  well  deny  that  Our  Lord  said 
words  about  Himself  which  seem  to  be  a  plain  state- 
ment of  it.  On  one  occasion,  as  St.  John  tells  us  in 
his  Gospel,  He  said  to  the  Jews,  "  Your  father  Abra- 
ham rejoiced  to  see  My  day ;  and  he  saw  it,  and  was 
glad.  Then  said  the  Jews  unto  Him,  Thou  art  not  yet 
fifty  years  old,  and  hast  Thou  seen  Abraham?  Jesus 
said  unto  them.  Verily,  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  before 
Abraham  was,  /  Am."  There  are  other  passages,  of 
course,  in  which  He  is  recorded  as  asserting  His  own 
Divinity;  but  this  seems  specially  appropriate,  as  in  it 
He  uses  the  very  words  which,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  has 
just  insisted,  cannot  be  applied  to  anything  bounded 
or  compressed  "  within  the  narrow  limits  of  physical 
humanity." 

She  goes  on,  in  her  following  words,  to  reassert  her 
denial.  "  No  form  or  physical  combination,"  she  says, 
"  is  adequate  to  represent  infinite  Love.  A  finite  and 
material  sense  of  God  leads  to  formalism  and  narrow- 
ness;   it  chills  the  spirit  of  Christianity.     A  limitless 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       117 

mind  cannot  proceed  from  physical  limitations.  Fi- 
niteness  cannot  present  the  idea  of  the  vastness  of  in- 
finity. A  mind  originating  from  a  finite  or  material 
source  must  be  limited  and  finite." 

In  all  this,  we  see  her  idea  of  infinity,  as  a  matter 
of  infinite  size  or  dimension,  continually  cropping  out ; 
and  also  the  notion  of  "  a  mind  originating  from  a 
finite  or  material  sense,"  which  is  not  held  by  any 
orthodox  Christian,  if  indeed  it  is  by  anyone  at  all. 

She  cannot,  it  would  seem,  shake  off  this  strange 
notion  that  our  usual  belief  is  that  one  mind  pro- 
duces another.  "  The  theory,"  she  goes  on  to  inform 
us,  ''  that  Spirit  is  not  the  only  substance  and  creator 
is  pantheistic  heterodoxy."  This  certainly  is  rather 
mixing  things  up.  The  first  part  (that  about  sub- 
stance) would  only  mean  that  there  are  other  sub- 
stances created  by  the  Almighty,  which  are  not  identi- 
cal with  Himself.  We  don't  see,  nor  can  anyone, 
how  she  makes  this  out  to  be  pantheistic ;  it  would 
seem  to  be  quite  the  contrary.  But  that  there  are 
other  "  creators  "  no  Christian  admits  for  a  moment, 
and  we  have  never  heard  of  anyone  that  did.  The 
old  straw  man  again. 

Mrs.  Eddy  simply  has  a  habit  of  slinging  words 
about  without  attaching  any  definite  meaning  to  them. 
She  would  seem  to  be  gradually  getting  at  the  idea 
of  what  she  understands  by  the  word  "  creation."  Let 
us  try  to  find  out  if  she  has  any.  Properly,  it  means, 
of  course,  the  causing  something  to  exist  which  did 
not  exist  before.  But  with  her  it  seems  to  mean  a 
reflection  or  representation  of  what  has  always  existed. 
"  Man,"  she  tells  us,  ''  is  not  absorbed  in  Deity,  and 
man  cannot  lose  his  individuality,  for  he  reflects 
eternal  Life;    nor  is  he  an  isolated,  solitary  idea,  for 


ii8       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

he  represents  infinite  Mind,  the  sum  of  all  substance." 
Astonishing  as  it  may  seem,  and  as  it  really  is,  this 
is  about  the  nearest  approach  to  anything  about  ''  cre- 
ation," in  this  chapter,  which  one  naturally  expects  to 
explain  what  Mrs.  Eddy  understands  by  this  very  im- 
portant word. 

A  few  pages  further  on  in  it,  indeed,  she  makes  her 
usual  style  of  remark,  as  follows :  "'  The  creations  of 
mortal  mind  are  material.  Immortal  spiritual  man 
alone  represents  the  truth  of  creation."  But  this  does 
not  tell  us  how  "  immortal  spiritual  man  "  came  into 
existence.  He  was  not,  it  would  seem,  himself  '*  the 
truth  of  creation,"  which  we  might  suppose  to  mean 
''  truly  created,"  if  it  means  anything  at  all.  No,  he 
only  "  represented  the  truth  of  creation." 

She  says,  a  little  later,  ''  there  can  be  but  one 
creator,  who  has  created  all."  But  she  does  not  deign 
to  tell  us  what  she  means  by  a  creator,  or  by  creating, 
or  what  is  the  "  all  "  that  this  creator  has  created. 
''  Immortal  spiritual  man  "  is  not  this  "  all,"  but  only 
represents  it,  as  we  have  just  seen;  and  she  has  pre- 
viously said  that  he  represents  "  infinite  Mind,"  and 
that  can't  have  been  created. 

If  there  is  any  idea  at  all  that  can  be  got  out  of 
this  mass  of  confusion,  it  would  seem  to  be  that  man 
(''immortal  spiritual  man"  of  course)  has  always 
existed  and  is  a  reflection  of  eternal  Life  or  God. 
The  nearest  idea  to  this  is  that  of  the  eternal  Word, 
or  Son  of  God,  the  second  Person  of  the  Blessed 
Trinity,  Who,  as  we  Christians  believe,  became  In- 
carnate in  a  human  soul  and  body.  But  she  can't 
be  referring  to  Him,  or  she  would  speak  more  plainly. 
And  she  doesn't  believe  in  the  Incarnation  at  all,  as 
she  has  given  us  to  understand  very  distinctly. 


The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science        119 

As  to  "  matter,"  of  course,  that  can't  be  any  part 
of  the  "  all  "  which  the  creator  has  created.  In  fact 
she  has  said,  just  above  as  quoted,  that  "  the  crea- 
tions of  mortal  mind  are  material,"  which  really  means 
that  the  material  universe  is  a  "  creation,"  figment, 
or  delusion  of  mortal  mind,  as  she  has  told  us 
before. 

What,  then,  is  the  real  creation?  We  can't  find  it 
anywhere.  And  what  in  the  world  is  she  talking 
about?  It  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  she  herself  had 
not  the  remotest  idea.  Only,  an  unmeaning  word  fits 
even  better  into  her  strings  of  unmeaning  words,  than 
it  would  if  it  had  some  definite  sense  of  signification. 
It  is  time  to  stop  merely  laughing  at  the  confusion 
of  ideas  under  which  this  poor  woman  labored,  and 
talk  very  seriously.  It  really  seems  that  she  some- 
times is  simply  lying;  trying  to  deliberately  deceive 
her  readers,  when  she  continually  repeats  false 
charges  as  to  what  Christians  in  general  hold  and 
teach,  and  claims  the  credit  of  it  all  to  her  own 
groundless  notions,  as  in  the  following  passage: 
"  Mortals,"  she  says,  "  when  the  supposed  pain  and 
pleasure  of  matter  cease  to  predominate,  will  drop 
the  false  estimate  of  life  and  happiness,  of  joy  and 
sorrow,  and  attain  the  bliss  of  loving  unselfishly,  work- 
ing patiently,  and  conquering  all  that  is  unlike  God." 
By  this,  she  plainly  means  to  assert  that  what  she 
describes  was  never  done  and  could  not  be  done,  with- 
out her  false  principles  of  Eddian  Science ;  whereas 
it  has  been  the  daily  life  of  all  true  Christians,  ages 
before  she  was  born,  and  practised  continually  by  them 
much  better  than  she  ever  even  imagined. 

There  is  no  chapter  in  her  book  in  which  it  is  more 
evident — as  it  is  here — that  what  is  true  in  it  is  not 


I20        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

new,  as  we  remarked  in  our  preface.  She  says,  for 
instance,  in  this  chapter:  "If  one  turns  away  from 
the  body  with  such  absorbed  interest  as  to  forget  it, 
the  body  experiences  no  pain."  Everyone  knows  that 
a  great  deal  can  be  accompHshed  in  this  way.  At 
times  of  intense  intellectual  occupation,  the  pleasures 
cf  the  senses  cease  to  allure,  and  unless  bodily  pains 
are  so  great  as  to  prevent  absolutely  such  occupation, 
the  mind  ceases  to  pay  much  attention  to  them.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  a  strong  desire  or  turning  the 
will  in  some  other  direction.  In  trying,  for  instance, 
to  extinguish  a  dangerous  fire,  one  may  be  quite 
severely  burned  without  being  aware  of  it  till  the  peril 
is  over.  And  this  distraction  of  the  mind  from  the 
lower  by  its  fixing  on  the  higher  may  rise  to  heroic 
degrees  when  (usually  by  special  Divine  help)  the 
supernatural  rather  than  the  merely  natural  comes  into 
play;  as  in  the  case  of  St.  Lawrence  on  the  gridiron, 
or  of  many  of  the  martyrs ;  or  in  the  ecstasies  of  the 
saints. 

But  there  is  no  need  to  account  for  this  by  bring- 
ing in  Eddian  theories  that  there  is  no  reality  in 
matter,  or  that  it  is  only  "  an  error  of  mortal  mind," 
any  more  than  there  is  to  conclude  that  a  bore,  who 
tires  you  by  his  conversation,  and  tries  to  force  it  on 
you,  has  no  real  existence,  or  is  only  an  ''  error."  The 
mind  simply  escapes  from  him,  if  bodily  escape  is  not 
possible,  to  fix  itself  on  something  of  more  interest. 
You  would  be  glad,  perhaps,  if  he  did  not  exist,  but 
you  know,  only  too  well,  that  he  does.  You  simply 
minimize  him,  as  much  as  possible. 

So  we  may  proceed  on  these  minimizing  lines  with 
this  chapter,  in  which  there  is  so  little  that  really  re- 
quires attention.     We  were  very  sanguine  in  entering 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       121 

on  it;  as  when  in  boyhood  we  had  ice-cream  in  a 
wineglass,  and  thought  that  when  the  *'  froth,"  piled 
up  on  the  top  (which  really  was  the  whole  thing)  was 
disposed  of,  we  would  come  to  the  solid  part.  So 
we  have  a  similar  experience  here.  In  this  promising 
chapter  about  "  Creation,"  we  find  next  to  nothing  on 
that  subject  at  all;    all  froth. 

The  next  one  seems  even  more  solid,  by  its  title; 
but  we  have  grave  misgivings  about  it,  now.  It  is 
called 

CHAPTER  X. 

Science  of  Being. 

This  title  does  look  as  if  we  were  here  to  have 
something  really  scientific,  at  last.  "  Science  of  Be- 
ing! "  A  treatise  on  "  Ontology,"  or  something  of  the 
kind.  (How  was  it  that  Mrs.  Eddy  never  got  hold 
of  this  word?  She  could  have  had  great  fun  with  it.) 
But  any  such  expectations  will  be  soon  dispelled.  In- 
deed they  were  unreasonable  from  the  start.  For  how 
could  anyone  write  on  something  of  which  he  had 
never  heard  even  the  name? 

As  we  begin  to  look  into  this  chapter,  the  first 
thing  we  notice  is  our  old  friend  the  straw  man,  poking 
out  his  head  more  continually  than  ever  before.  His 
first  appearance  is  an  unusually  startling  one.  He 
appears  now  in  the  guise  of  "  belief  in  a  material 
basis  from  which  may  be  deduced  all  rationality." 
We  are  told,  it  is  true,  that  he  is  now  "  slowly  yielding 
to  the  idea  of  a  metaphysical  basis,"  which,  we  are 
informed,  "  looks  away  from  matter  to  Mind  as  the 
cause  of  every  effect ; "  but  he  seems  to  be  quite 
lively  still.    *'  Materialistic  hypotheses  challenge  meta- 


122       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

physics  to  meet  in  mortal  combat,"  Mrs.  Eddy  says. 
"In  this  revolutionary  period,"  she  continues,  "like  the 
herd-boy  with  his  sling,  woman  (Mrs.  Eddy,  that  is) 
goes  forth  to  battle  with  Goliath." 

She  seems  really  to  have  got  this  "  materialism  "  on 
the  brain,  as  it  were,  and  thinks  that  everyone  else 
has  it  as  well;  and  that  there  is  no  one  fighting  it 
except  herself. 

Imagine  a  person  writing  stuff  like  this :  "  The 
theories  I  combat  are  these:  i.  That  all  is  matter; 
2.  That  matter  originates  in  Mind,  and  is  as  real  as 
Mind,  possessing  intelligence  and  life.  The  first 
theory,  that  matter  is  everything,  is  quite  as  reason- 
able as  the  second,  that  Mind  and  matter  coexist  and 
cooperate.  One  only  of  the  following  statements  can 
be  true:  i.  That  everything  is  matter;  2.  That  every- 
thing is  Mind.     Which  one  is  it?  " 

Imagine  a  person  going  out  as  Mrs.  Eddy  valiantly 
does  with  her  "  sling,"  and  slinging  around  such  logic 
as  this! 

There  is  only  one  of  these  statements  that  any 
Christian  admits,  and  that  is,  that  "  matter  originates 
in  Mind."  It  is  not,  in  a  very  true  sense  of  the  word, 
as  real  as  Mind,  for  it  does  not  necessarily  exist,  as 
indeed  the  statement  just  preceding,  that  it  "  origi- 
nates "  in  Mind,  clearly  shows.  Still  less  does  it  fol- 
low that  it  "  possesses  intelligence  and  life." 

The  reason,  of  course,  for  her  trying  to  force  on 
us  these  two  theories  given  as  the  only  possible  ones 
different  from  her  own,  is  that  she  determines  to 
ignore  the  regular  Christian  teaching,  that  matter  is 
created;  which  means,  created  out  of  nothing.  She 
simply  does  not  mention  this  even  as  a  ''  theory,"  at 
all;   she  chooses  to  take  for  granted  that  no  one  can 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       123 

possibly  hold  it.  She  has  just  written  a  chapter, 
nominally  about  ''  Creation,"  in  which  she  omits  to 
say  anything  about  the  subject  of  the  chapter. 

If  she  would  make  some  objection  to  this  point  of 
Christian  belief,  no  one  could  complain.  But  she  does 
not  even  seem  to  understand  it  in  any  way.  So  we 
shall  have  to  state  it  for  her,  or  rather  for  her  fol- 
lowers, who  are  inclined  to  swallow  everything  that 
she  gives  them  to  swallow.  The  Christian  belief  is 
then  as  follows : 

1.  Nothing  exists,  necessarily  or  from  eternity,  ex- 
cept God,  Whom  she  chooses  to  call  "  Mind."  He 
can,  however,  call  into  existence  anything  which  He 
pleases ;  but  even  He  cannot  make  any  such  thing  to 
be  necessary  or  eternal  as  He  Himself  is ;  for  He 
being  omnipotent,  must  necessarily  reserve  to  Himself 
the  power  to  destroy  it. 

2.  There  was  a  ''  time,"  as  we  have  to  say  (for  we 
have  no  other  word  for  it)  when  nothing  did  exist 
except  God.  But,  properly  speaking,  it  was  not 
"  time  "  at  all.  For  "  time  "  properly  means  a  succes- 
sion of  events.  And  in  Him  there  is  no  such  succes- 
sion. God  Himself,  His  own  Life,  is  absolutely  in- 
dependent of  time. 

3.  This  is  a  profound  mystery,  which  human  reason 
can  never  thoroughly  comprehend.  But  it  follows, 
logically,  from  what  we  are  able  to  know  by  the  facul- 
ties which  He  has  given  us.  For  we  know,  by  our 
own  consciousness,  that  in  us  there  is  a  succession  of 
events  and  we  see  the  same  all  around  us.  But  this 
succession  must  have  had  a  beginning.  And  it  simply 
could  not  start  of  itself.  It  could  only  begin  in  some 
Being  independent  of  time,  in  Whom  there  is  no  suc- 
cession, whose  Life  is  one  eternal  Kow.     That  is  to 


124       Tlie  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

say,  of  course,  in  Him,  for  whose  Life  the  only  word 
is  /  Am. 

Mrs.  Eddy's  fundamental  mistake  is  in  not  being 
willing  to  acknowledge  this  ineffable  mystery,  which 
it  is  vain  for  us  to  try  to  sound.  She  sees  well  enough 
that  matter  could  not  always  have  existed ;  but  she 
refuses  to  believe  that  it  ever  could  have  begun  to 
exist.  So  she  simply  concludes  that  it  does  not  now 
exist,  and  will  not  take  any  evidence  to  show  that  it 
does. 

With  regard  to  what  she  calls  "  mortal  mind,"  she  is 
really  puzzled.  For  she  knows,  by  her  own  conscious- 
ness, that  this  does  exist.  And  she  is  afraid  to  con- 
fess that  it  can  have  been'  created  out  of  nothing, 
for  if  it  could  have  been,  why  not  matter  as  well? 
So  there  is,  or  seems  to  her  to  be,  no  other  course  ex- 
cept to  hold  that  whatever  there  is  of  reality  in  it,  is 
identical  with  *'  INIind  "  or  the  Being  of  God  Himself. 
In  other  words,  she  is  convinced  that  she  herself  is 
God.  There  would  be  no  trouble  about  this,  except 
that  other  people  have  also  to  be  accounted  for,  to 
make  her  conclusions  of  any  practical  service.  So  un- 
less their  existence,  like  that  of  matter,  is  absolutely 
to  be  denied,  they  must  be  God,  as  well  as  she. 

This  being  the  case,  of  course  there  can  be  nothing 
really  imperfect,  or  not  in  good  working  order  in  any- 
body else,  any  more  than  with  herself,  li  there  seems 
to  be,  it  must  be  a  delusion,  or  illusion  of  "  mortal 
mind."  But  how  in  the  world  can  there  be  any  il- 
lusion in  God?  Yet,  if  she  once  admits  that  she  (and 
other  people)  are  not  God,  the  whole  business  falls 
to  pieces. 

Of  course,  there  is  nothing  for  her  to  do  but  to 
dodge  this  difficulty,  and  say  nothing  about  it;    and 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       125 

talk  loudly  and  continually  about  "  materialism,"  and 
try  to  ascribe  to  her  opponents'  false  beliefs  about 
matter,  as  for  example,  that  it  ''  possesses  intelligence 
and  life."  Some  people,  perhaps,  may  have  such  be- 
liefs and  that  is  quite  sufficient  for  her  purpose.  She 
may  be  as  pantheistic  as  she  likes,  if  she  can  only 
have  it  believed  that  her  opponents  are  so,  and  that 
she,  of  course,  since  she  is  slinging  (not  a  stone,  but 
mud)  at  them,  must  be  different. 

It  is  a  pity  that  she  does  not  seem  to  have  had 
exactly  the  soil  of  *'  an  honest  and  good  heart  "  of 
which  she  speaks  later,  in  which  to  sow  her  own  doc- 
trines, to  begin  with.  This  defect  makes  her  con- 
stantly assume  that  it  is  ''  chastity  and  purity,  in  con- 
trast with  the  earthward  gravitation  of  sensualism  and 
impurity,  which  really  attest  the  divine  origin  and 
operation  of  Christian  Science."  This  is,  practically, 
to  assert  that  her  Eddian  Science  is  only  opposed  by 
those  who  are  controlled  by  "  sensualism  and  im- 
purity." 

Of  course  she  goes  on  firing  occasionally  at  "  ma- 
terial hypotheses  "  all  through  this  chapter,  as  usual, 
hoping,  as  it  would  seem,  to  make  so  much  smoke  as 
to  hide  the  actual  issues.  We  can  just  take  these 
samples,  all  on  one  page.  ''  Deductions  from  material 
hypotheses  are  not  scientific."  "  Divine  Science  re- 
verses the  false  testimony  of  the  material  senses." 
''  Science  shows  that  material,  conflicting  mortal 
opinions  emit  the  effects  of  error  at  all  times."  "  God 
never  ordained  a  material  law  to  annul  the  spiritual 
law."  As  if  anyone  ever  pr^etended  that  He  did !  Or 
again,  on  the  next  page,  she  speaks  of  the  five  senses 
as  being  "  the  manifested  beliefs  of  mortal  mind, 
which  affirm  that  life,  substance,  and  intelligence  are 


126       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

material,  instead  of  spiritual.  Of  course  they  don't 
affirm  anything  of  the  kind.  The  danger  to  those  not 
.instructed  in  real  religion,  and  particularly  evident  in 
this  chapter,  is  in  the  pious  sound  of  much  of  the 
talk  in  which  she  indulges.  For  example :  ''  The 
starting  point  of  divine  Science  is  that  God,  Spirit,  is 
All-in-all,  and  that  there  is  no  other  might  nor  Mind — 
that  God  is  Love,  and  that  therefore  He  is  divine 
Principle." 

Of  course  these  last  v^ords  mean  nothing  whatever. 
But  they  sound  nice,  and  give  her  a  chance  to  lug  in  her 
favorite  word  ''Principle."  She  then  goes  on:  "To 
grasp  the  reality  and  order  of  being  in  its  Science, 
you  must  begin  by  reckoning  God  as  the  divine  Prin- 
ciple of  all  that  really  is.  (As  if  any  Christian  failed 
to  do  that!)  "  Spirit,  Life,  Truth,  Love,  combine  as 
one — and  are  the  Scriptural  names  for  God.  All  sub- 
stance, intelligence,  wisdom,  being,  immortality,  cause 
and  effect  belong  to  God."  "  These  are  His  attributes, 
the  eternal  manifestations  of  the  infinite  divine  Prin- 
ciple, Love.  No  wisdom  is  wise  but  His  wisdom ;  no 
truth  is  true,  no  love  is  lovely,  no  life  is  Life  but  the 
divine ;  no  good  is,  but  the  good  God  bestows."  This, 
of  course,  is  quite  right ;  it  is  quite  theologically  sound, 
if  taken  widely,  and  might  be  put  into  any  good 
spiritual  book.  It  really  has  a  good  deal  of  what  we 
call  "  unction "  about  it.  But  the  amazing  thing  is 
that  Mrs.  Eddy  should  try  to  palm  it  off  as  her 
own  discovery,  and  a  part  of  her  new  Eddian  Science, 
when  in  fact  it  has  been  said  over  and  over  again  in 
all  the  ages  of  Christianity.  It  has  no  connection  at 
all  with  her  peculiar  ideas. 

A  couple  of  pages  later  on,  she  falls  into  a  strange 
mistake  which  ought  to  be  evident,  even  to  her  own 


The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science       127 

bewildered  mind.  She  tells  us  that  matter  is  a  ''  hu- 
man concept."  So  far  is  this  from  being  the  case, 
that  the  human  mind  not  only  cannot  thoroughly  un- 
derstand it;  it  cannot  of  itself  make  any  concept  of  it 
at  all.  We  have  already  had  occasion  to  refer  to  this ; 
but  it  will  do  no  harm  to  repeat  it.  Mind  is  intelligi- 
ble to  us ;  for  we  ourselves  are  in  its  region  or  do- 
main. Matter  on  the  other  hand  is  not  intelligible,  to 
us  directly,  and  we  probably  might  never  be  able  to 
get  any  idea  of  it  if  God  had  not  mysteriously  re- 
vealed it  to  us  through  the  senses.  It  even  seems 
likely,  that,  if  we  were  entirely  deprived  of  these 
physical  senses,  which  God  has  given  to  us,  we  should 
never  be  able  to  get  any  idea  even  of  the  geometrical 
space  in  which  matter  lies  or  moves.  We  cannot,  ex- 
perimentally, be  quite  sure  as  to  this,  for  even  in  the  * 
cases  of  such  of  us  who  have  never  had  those  of  sight 
and  hearing,  or  have  at  any  rate  lost  them  at  a  very 
early  age,  and  in  whom  those  of  smell  and  taste  are 
much  dulled,  that  of  touch  has  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent remained;  so  that  we  cannot  have  any  certain 
test  to  go  by. 

Of  course  He  Who  is  the  Creator  of  both  spirit 
and  matter  could  have  bridged  the  gap  between  the 
two  by  some  other  means  beside  that  of  the  senses ; 
but  we  cannot  even  imagine  what  that  means  could 
have  been.  Not  can  we  imagine  what  sort  of  knowl- 
edge the  angels  which  He  has  created  (or  any  other 
incorporeal  spirits  which  He  may  have  created)  can 
have  of  matter  or  even  of  space.  It  certainly  seems 
that  Mrs.  Eddy,  if  she  wanted,  for  her  purpose,  to 
deny  the  existence  of  matter,  would  have  done  much 
better  by  following  this  line  than  that  of  calling  mat- 
ter a  '*  human  concept,"  which  is  precisely  what  it  is 


128       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

not.  The  reason  why  the  rest  of  us,  who  may  be 
called  "  sensible  "  people,  do  not  follow  it,  is  that  we 
are  sure  that  God,  Who  can  neither  deceive  nor  be 
deceived,  would  not  have  given  us  up  by  our  senses 
to  a  delusion,  and  compelled  us  to  believe  in  what 
really  does  not  exist. 

It  would  be  absolutely  impossible  for  "  mortal 
mind  "  to  invent  matter  if  there  were  none ;  it  may  be 
called  a  revelation  from  God  to  us.  And  as  it  is  so, 
we  rightly  say,  in  accordance  with  all  sound  philoso- 
phy, that  the  senses  are  an  infallible  motive  of  certi- 
tude; though  of  course  they  may  occasionally  work 
abnormally,  so  that  nothing  exterior  to  our  own  or- 
ganism is  the  cause  of  the  impressions  which  we  re- 
ceive from  them.  Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  has  no  diffi- 
culty, in  pronouncing,  by  her  complete  and  infallible 
knowledge  of  all  the  things  of  God,  that  He  never 
could  have  created  matter. 

"  Is  Spirit,"  she  asks,  ''  the  source  or  creator  of 
matter?"  *' Science,"  she  has  the  audacity  to  say, 
"  reveals  nothing  in  Spirit  out  of  which  to  create  mat- 
ter." She  does  not,  as  has  often  already  been  re- 
marked, recognize  at  all  what  is  meant  by  ''  creation." 
Spirit  needs  nothing  "  out  of  which  "  to  create  mat- 
ter. If  she  chooses  to  say,  that  even  for  God  creation 
out  of  nothing  is  impossible,  very  well ;  that  is  the 
only  line  to  take,  and  it  has  already  been  taken  by 
others.  But  she  should  not,  disingenuously,  assume 
that  if  God  created  it,  He  must  create  it  "  out  of  " 
something  previously  existing,  and  thus  set  limits  to 
the  Almighty. 

What  she  goes  on  to  say  is  simply  not  true.  '*  The 
admission,"  she  says,  "  that  there  can  be  material  sub- 
stance    requires     another     admission — namely,     that 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       129 

Spirit  is  not  infinite,  and  that  matter  is  self-creative, 
self-existent,  and  eternal."  It  requires  nothing  of  the 
sort.  It  simply  requires  the  admission  that  Spirit  is 
infinite,  not  that  It  is  not  so.  But  she  is,  as  it  would 
seem,  hopelessly  befogged  by  her  idea  of  infinity  as 
a  matter  of  quantity,  from  which  it  appears  to  her 
that  if  God  created  anything  He  would  be  bigger  than 
He  was  before ;  as  if  the  manifestation  of  His  power 
and  glory  made  any  difference  in  Himself. 

This  subject,  however,  is  too  great  a  one  to  be 
properly  discussed  in  a  book  like  this.  If  Mrs.  Eddy 
had  wished  to  go  into  it  thoroughly,  she  should  have 
read  the  profound  and  exhaustive  treatises  on  it  to 
be  found  in  regular  and  professional  theological  works, 
instead  of  just  flipping  it  aside  in  a  page  or  two ;  and 
her  "  students  "  should  follow  that  course  now.  To 
assume  that  she  knew,  and  others  by  her  can  know, 
all  about  it  is  a  case  of  "  fools  rushing  in  where  angels 
fear  to  tread." 

The  difficulty  which  in  fact  she  finds,  but  tries  to 
cover  up  by  a  maze  of  words,  is  to  explain  how,  if 
God  is  ''  All-in-all "  in  her  sense  of  the  term,  "  error  " 
comes  in,  in  any  way.  If  she  would  admit  that  He 
could  create  substance  not  perfectly  possessing  His 
own  attributes  (which  is  what  is  meant  by  creation) 
this  difficulty  would  disappear.  This  difficulty  we  have 
already  remarked. 

The  whole  trouble  is  caused  by  the  one  purpose 
which  is  the  raison  d'etre,  as  the  French  would  say, 
of  her  whole  system,  which  is  of  course  to  "  cure 
the  sick."  She  vainly  struggles  to  get  rid  of  it  by 
saying  that  matter  and  its  effects — sin,  sickness,  and 
death — are  states  of  mortal  mind,  which  act,  react, 
and  come  to  a  stop.    They  are  not  facts  of  Mind. 


130       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

But  what  is  mortal  mind,  to  have  these  "states?" 
Please  step  up  to  the  Captain's  office  and  settle.  God 
can't  have  created  it,  for  Mrs.  Eddy  says  that  He 
can't  create  anything.  And  she  also  rightly  says  that 
nothing  can  create  itself.  After  all,  then,  "  mortal 
mind "  must  be  the  same  as  "  Mind."  How,  then, 
do  its  states  "  act,  react,  and  then  come  to  a  stop  ?  " 
There  seems  to  be  only  one  answer  to  this.  They  are 
not  facts  of  "  Mind,"  but  just  states  of  "  Mind."  Any- 
one ought  to  see  the  difference  between  "  facts  "  and 
**  state."  Of  course  she  doesn't  mean  this,  for  she 
doesn't  mean  anything  at  all.  But  she  has  to  say 
something.    If  she  stops  talking  she  is  done  for. 

It  is  about  time  now  to  bring  more  to  the  front  a 
very  important  matter,  which  is  among  those  just 
mentioned,  but  which  we  have  not  yet  paid  much  at- 
tention to,  in  this  examination  of  "  Eddian  Science." 
The  inventor  of  this  pseudo-science  does  not  say 
much  about  it  herself,  and  indeed  it  seems  that  she 
tries  to  pass  it  over  as  of  not  much  consequence.  But 
it  is  really  not  only  a  very  important  matter,  but  by 
far  the  most  important  one,  practically,  that  we  can 
have  to  discuss. 

Mrs.  Eddy  simply  mentions  it  in  the  passage  just 
now  quoted,  as  being  one  of  the  ''  effects  "  of  matter, 
which  she  says  are  "  sin,  sickness  and  death."  She 
names  it  first,  but  in  her  estimate  it  seems  to  be 
last.  It  is  the  worst  thing  in  the  world,  and  is  not 
one  of  the  "  effects  of  matter,"  which  is  created  by 
God,  and  of  course  in  itself  good.  ''  Sickness  and 
death,"  also,  are  effects  of  it,  not  of  "  matter,"  as  she 
would  have  us  believe.  We  hardly  need  to  say  that 
this  worst  thing  of  all  in  the  world  is  "  sin." 

The  genuine  Christian  Science,  revealed  to  us  by 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       131 

our  faith,  teaches  us  that  in  fact  sin  did  not  have  its 
origin  in  matter,  in  any  way  at  all.  The  first  sin 
was  committed  by  beings  who  were  not  associated 
with  matter,  and  were  purely  spiritual.  These  were 
the  angels  of  God.  These,  as  the  apostle  St.  Jude 
(whom  ^Irs.  Eddy  has  to  number  among  the  first 
students  of  Christian  Science)  tells  us  were  the  ones 
whose  evil  example  mankind  has  followed.  That  is  to 
say,  some  of  them  were ;  the  rest  remaining  in  justice 
or  righteousness  and  obedience,  and  being  therefore 
confirmed  in  that  happy  state  forever.  The  Apostle's 
words  are  the  following :  "  The  angels  who  kept  not 
their  first  estate,  but  left  their  own  habitation.  He 
hath  reserved  in  everlasting  chains  under  darkness, 
unto  the  judgment  of  the  great  day."  (We  quote  this 
from  the  version  with  which  Mrs.  Eddy  was  familiar, 
though  all  are  substantially  the  same.) 

As  to  to  our  following  their  example,  St.  Paul  ex- 
plicitly tells  us :  "  Wherefore,  as  by  one  man  sin  en- 
tered into  this  world,  and  death  by  sin."  (Her  own 
version  again.)  Rom.  v.  12.  This  one  man  was  the 
first  man,  Adam.  St.  Paul  could  not  possibly  have 
meant  to  refer  to  any  other. 

Now  what  was  this  first  sin,  both  of  the  angels 
and  of  man  ?  It  had,  of  course,  with  the  angels,  noth- 
ing to  do  with  matter  at  all.  And  even  Mrs.  Eddy 
herself  does  not,  in  her  fragmentary  "Key"  or  else- 
where, consider  it  as  caused  in  man  by  a  merely 
gluttonous  desire  for  a  material  apple.  But  even 
if  she  did,  we  do  not  need  information  from  her, 
for  the  Scripture  is  plain.  The  sin  of  the  angels,  and 
also  of  man,  was  obviously  one  of  disobedience  and 
pride,  of  setting  up  the  judgment  or  opinion  of  a 
creature  against  that  of  the  Creator.     It  might  have 


132       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

been  committed  by  man  if  matter  really  had  no 
existence  whatever.  The  temptation  was,  as  the 
Scripture  tells  us,  that  if  Adam  and  Eve  would  dis- 
obey God's  commands,  they  should  "  be  as  gods,  know- 
ing good  and  evil."  It  was  a  spiritual  temptation. 
The  result  leading  of  yielding  to  it  was,  that  matter, 
which  was  created  for  good,  became  an  occasion  of 
evil  to  man,  and  the  Divine  Principle  (as  Mrs.  Eddy 
would  say)  of  obedience  to  God  ceased  to  be  his  sole 
control. 

The  truth  is  that  sickness  and  death  are  the  eflfects 
of  sin;  sin  itself  is  the  original  cause  of  our  evils. 
Sin  must  not  be  lumped  together  with  sickness  and 
death,  as  one  of  the  effects  of  matter.  Matter,  hav- 
ing been  perverted  for  us  by  sin  from  its  original 
good  purpose,  may  now  be  a  cause  or  occasion  for 
sin;  and  it  actually  is  so  for  most  of  the  sins  com- 
mitted by  mankind.  But  to  put  the  blame  for  sin  on 
matter,  as  if  the  latter  were  something  essentially  bad, 
is  simply  to  put,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  so  often  does,  the  cart 
before  the  horse.  And  it  is  the  reason,  of  course, 
why  she  tries  to  deny,  against  the  senses  which  God 
has  given  to  us,  and  against  common  sense,  the 
existence  of  matter.  She  does  not  really  disbelieve 
in  its  existence,  as  her  words  frequently  show ;  but 
it  seems  to  her  that  she  has  to  deny  it,  on  account  of 
her  false  principles;  and  so  she  involves  herself  in 
her  continual  contradictions.  The  worst  of  all  this, 
of  course,  is  that  it  relieves  us  of  all  responsibility 
for  sin.  Sin,  instead  of  being,  as  it  really  is,  an 
error  which  we  can  avoid  by  our  will,  aided  by  the 
grace  of  God,  becomes  simply  a  mistake,  due  to  a 
lack  of  understanding  of  some  propositions  of  hers, 
which  no  one  can  really  understand  as  true. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        133 

This  fatal  Eddian  error  is  more  or  less  prevalent 
at  the  present  day,  not  only  among  those  who  formally 
accept  her  doctrine  which  leads  to  it,  but  also  in  the 
world  at  large.  Mankind  are  always  only  too  ready 
to  make  for  themselves  an  excuse  for  sin,  and  still 
readier  to  take  one,  if  it  is  offered  to  them.  And  they 
are  all  the  more  ready  to  do  so,  if  the  excuse  is  also 
presented  to  them  as  a  positive  remedy  for  other  evils 
which  most  of  them  care  more  than  for  sin  itself, 
namely,  *'  sickness  and  death."  And  still  more  so,  if 
by  means  of  a  general  acceptance  of  it,  they  can  be 
saved  from  the  consequences  which  human  justice  has 
assigned  as  penalties  for  sin,  when  it  takes  the  form 
of  crime ;  as  is  shown  to  be  actually  the  case  by  the 
increasing  frequency  of  the  plea  of  "  insanity." 

We  do  not,  of  course,  mean  to  say  that  this  last 
motive  is  prominent  or  usual  among  actual  Christian 
Scientists.  They  are  not,  yet,  quite  enough  of  them 
for  it  to  be  so ;  and  most  of  them  are  fairly  well  pro- 
tected by  circumstances  from  criminal  tendencies. 
But  it  is  evident  that  if  "  Christian  Science  "  became 
the  prevailing  doctrine  of  any  community,  those  who 
were  not  so  protected  would  be  glad  to  avail  them- 
selves of  it. 

And  with  regard  to  sins  which  are  not  crimes 
against  the  law,  it  is  evident  that  they  cannot  be  so 
efficaciously  or  strongly  resisted  if  they  are  believed 
to  be  simply  symptoms  of  a  general  disease  causing 
sickness  and  death,  which  can  be  otherwise  overcome, 
as  they  would  be  if  they  were  regarded  as  in  them- 
selves, and  individually,  culpable. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  it  is  true,  claims  and  directs  that  what 
she  calls  "  false  beliefs  "  should  be  resisted  as  promptly 
and  energetically  as  good  Christians  resist  what  we 


134       T^he  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

call  "  bad  thoughts ; "  but  it  is  hardly  possible  for 
those  to  act  in  this  way  who  only  look  on  them  as  re- 
motely and  slightly  injurious,  instead  of  being  directly 
and  dangerously  so. 

The  remainder  of  this  chapter,  and  like  most  of 
what  has  already  been  gone  over,  contains  nothing 
new.  Perhaps  the  most  noteworthy  feature  in  it  is 
the  continual  repetition  of  the  accusation  that  orthodox 
Christians  believe  that  the  Infinite  starts  from  the 
finite.  Mrs.  Eddy  really  must  know  that  they  do  not 
so  believe;  but  she  not  only  constantly  asserts  this 
false  charge,  but  even  takes  its  truth  for  granted. 
Of  course  all  Christians  who  know  anything  at  all 
about  their  religion  know  that  it  is  false,  just  as  well 
as  she  knew  it  herself.  But  she  hoped  that  those  who 
are  not  very  well  instructed  can  be  induced  to  take 
her  word  for  it,  especially  if  it  is  repeated  often 
enough,  even  without  any  attempt  to  give  facts  or 
quotations  to  establish  the  charge.  It  may  be  as 
well  just  to  notice  one  more  example  of  this  sort  of 
thing  from  this  chapter. 

"  If  God,"  she  says,  "  were  limited  to  man  or  mat- 
ter, or  if  the  infinite  could  be  circumscribed  within 
the  finite,  God  would  be  corporeal  and  infinite  Mind 
would  seem  to  spring  from  a  limited  body;  but  this 
is  an  impossibility.  Infinite  Mind  can  have  no  start- 
ing point,  and  can  return  to  no  limit.  It  can  never 
be  in  bonds,  nor  be  fully  manifested  through  cor- 
poreality." 

It  is  true  that  she  does  not  say  directly  that  any- 
body actually  makes  the  statements  which  she  is  at- 
tacking; but  she  feels  quite  sure  that  her  readers 
will  think  that  some  one  must  have  made  them,  and 
in  fact  that  there  must  be  many  of  the  "  unscientific  " 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        135 

who  hold  them  to  be  true.  Many,  she  thought,  will 
believe  on  her  word,  that  the  ordinary  Christian  really 
believes  that  God  ''  is  limited  to  man  or  matter,"  and 
that  the  infinite  "  can  be  circumscribed  within  the 
finite ;  "  that  God  is,  in  fact,  corporeal,  and  that  un- 
limited Mind  "  springs  from  a  limited  body ;  "  that 
infinite  Mind  has  a  starting  point,  and  returns  to  a 
limit.  Or,  if  they  don't  believe  these  latter  proposi- 
tions, which  she  deduces  from  the  former  ones 
(though  they  are  all  the  same),  it  is  because  they 
are  too  stupid  to  see  the  connection.  And  also  that 
the  ordinary  Christian  thinks  that  God  is  "  in  bonds, 
and  is  fully  manifested  through  corporeality." 

This  one  paragraph  alone  ought  to  be  enough  to 
stamp  her  as  a  falsifier  and  a  liar;  for  though  she 
did  not  know  very  much  about  religion  of  any  kind 
except  the  false  and  absurd  system  which  she  tried 
to  palm  off  on  the  world,  she  did  know  well  enough 
that  nobody  whatever  holds  any  of  these  things, 
whether  premises  or  conclusions,  which  she  tries  to 
make  her  readers  believe  that  practically  everybody 
except  herself  and  her  "  students  "  hold. 

We  are  sorry  to  have  to  speak  in  this  way  about 
anyone  who  is  commonly  regarded,  outside  of  her  own 
circle,  as  simply  under  a  kind  of  harmless  delusion; 
but  really  one  cannot  regard  this  sort  of  thing  as 
merely  a  case  of  what  we  have  called  the  "  straw 
man."  And  there  are  plenty  of  examples  of  it 
all  through  her  book.  We  can  hardly  expect  that 
those  who  have  become  her  "  students,"  and  learned 
to  pay  a  sort  of  worship  to  her  as  superior  to  our 
Divine  Lord  Himself,  will  be  rescued  from  her  by 
anything  that  we  or  anyone  else  can  say;  but  we  do 
venture  to  hope  that  some  of  those  who  have  not 


136       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

seen  through  her  may  be  warned  against  her  while 
there  is  yet  time. 

A  few  pages  further  on,  she  actually  has  the 
audacity  to  quote  Our  Lord's  own  words,  "  I  and  My 
Father  are  one,'*  which  the  immense  majority  of 
Christians  have  always  taken  as  an  assertion  of  His 
Divinity,  as  a  proof  that  everyone  of  us  has  a  right 
to  say  the  same.  She  explains  these  words  as  show- 
ing that  ''  he  knew  of  but  one  Mind,  and  laid  no 
claim  to  any  other.  He  knew  that  the  Ego  (and  of 
course  that  of  everyone  else)  was  Mind  instead  of 
body  and  that  matter,  sin  and  evil  were  not  Mind." 
And  she  pretends  that  it  was  "  His  understanding  of 
this  divine  Science  "  which  "  brought  upon  Him  the 
anathemas  of  the  age."  As  if  it  would  have  worried 
the  Jews  at  all  to  have  Him  claim  to  be  a  "  reflec- 
tion," as  she  calls  it,  of  "  Mind,"  if  He  allowed  them 
to  be  the  same! 

One  cannot  help  wondering  whether  Mrs.  Eddy's 
deluded  followers  have  ever  read  any  considerable  por- 
tion of  her  book.  It  is  especially  remarkable,  if  they 
have  done  so,  how  they  can  possibly  continue  to  cling 
to  it,  after  the  complete  dissipation  of  its  absurd  no- 
tions by  her  own  inglorious  departure  from  this  world. 
And  one  can  hardly  understand  why  she  ventured  to 
write  passages  which  evidently  implied  that  she  her- 
self, at  any  rate,  was  not  to  be  subject  to  death, 
when  she  must  have  known  that  there  was  no  real 
reason  why  she  should  not  die,  like  other  people. 

For  instance,  she  says  in  this  chapter  which  we 
are  now  wading  through,  that  ''  the  belief  of  that 
mortal  that  he  must  die  occasioned  his  departure." 
And  again,  she  says  that  "  mortals  claim  that  death 
is  inevitable."     What  was  the  sense  of  knocking  her 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       137 

own  nonsense  in  the  head  by  maintaining  that  a  true 
Christian  Scientist  can  avoid  death  if  he  only  re- 
fuses to  beheve  he  has  to  die,  when  she  knew  that 
she  would  stamp  herself  as  not  a  genuine  Scientist 
by  actually  dying? 

There  is  really  only  one  answer  to  this  question, 
for  it  is  almost  incredible  that  she  was  under  the 
delusion  that  she  would  live  forever.  And  that 
answer  is  that  all  that  she  really  cared  for  was  to 
make  some  money  by  selling  her  book  at  an  exorbitant 
price,  far  above  any  possible  expense  incurred  in  pro- 
ducing it;  and  that  she  felt  sure  that  during  her 
life,  people  would  be  willing  to  pay  this  price  on 
account  of  the  false  promises  held  out  to  them  in  it. 
She  quite  reasonably  thought  that  a  good  many  people 
would  be  foolish  enough  to  take  some  stock  in  these 
promises,  and  that  while  she  lived  she  could  have 
a  life,  which  even  if  it  should  happen  to  be  short, 
would  certainly  be  a  merry  one.  But  it  is  pretty 
safe  to  say  that  she  did  not  expect  that  they  would  go 
so  far  as  to  continue  believing  in  those  promises  after 
she  herself,  by  dying,  exploded  them.  And  how  it 
is  that  they  actually  do  so  continue,  is  an  inscrutable 
mystery. 

Her  own  idea  was  "  after  me,  the  deluge,"  but  she 
did  not  care  an  atom  about  that.  She  was  perfectly 
willing,  not  only  to  sacrifice  all  posthumous  fame,  but 
also  to  do  all  the  injury  that  she  could  to  the  souls, 
and  even  to  the  bodies  of  her  '*  students,"  and  to  take 
her  chance  of  incurring  the  judgments  of  God  for 
this,  after  her  own  death,  so  long  as  she  could  get 
some  money  out  of  them  while  she  lived. 

Well,  a  good  many  people,  indeed  the  great  majority 
of   mankind,   have   always    acted    in   the    same   way. 


138        The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science 

"  The  children  of  this  world,"  Our  Lord  has  told  us, 
are  wiser  in  their  generation  than  the  children  of 
light.''  Mrs.  Eddy  simply  was  in  their  class.  She 
probably  did  not  even  believe  in  God  or  His  judg- 
ments at  all. 

It  is  interesting,  however,  to  observe  how  she  tries 
to  lay  a  sort  of  anchor  to  windward  to  lessen  the 
shock  and  strain  of  the  catastrophe  which  she  ex- 
pected to  come.  Of  course  she  regards  the  death  of 
our  Blessed  Lord  on  the  cross  as  not  having  occurred 
at  all.  "  To  show,"  she  says,  "  that  the  substance  of 
Himself  was  Spirit,  and  the  body  was  more  perfect 
because  of  death,  and  no  less  material  until  the 
Ascension  (His  further  spiritual  exultation)  Jesus 
waited  until  the  mortal  or  fleshy  sense  had  relinquished 
the  belief  of  substance-matter,  and  spiritual  sense  had 
quenched  all  earthly  yearnings.  Thus  He  found  the 
eternal  Ego,  and  proved  that  He  and  the  Father  were 
inseparable  as  God  and  His  reflection  or  spiritual 
man.  Our  Master  gained  the  solution  of  being, 
demonstrating  the  existence  of  but  one  Mind  without 
a  second  or  equal." 

Of  course,  Mrs.  Eddy  gained  the  "  solution  of  be- 
ing "  with  less  difficulty  than  ''  our  Master  "  did,  for 
she  got  at  it  before  going  through  the  formality  of 
death  at  all.  For  she  wrote  this  chapter  on  the 
''Science  of  Being"  (which  we  suppose  includes 
its  "solution")  long  before  going  through  any  such 
formality ;  and  why  "  our  Master "  should  have 
needed  it  is  not  quite  clear.  Still  less  (according  to 
her  own  relative  estimate  of  herself  and  Himself) 
is  it  clear  why  she  should  have  to  have  gone  through 
it;  but  of  course  as  it  had  to  come,  there  had  to  be 
some  explanation  for  it. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        139 

So  she  gets  up  this  ingenious  scheme.  "Our  Mas- 
ter," she  tells  us,  did  not  really  depart  until  the  belief 
in  substance — matter  was  relinquished  by  Him,  and 
even  then,  it  could  not  be  called  death.  The  mistake 
of  supposing  that  He  had  a  body  was  got  over,  in 
His  case,  by  the  disappearance  of  that  body  in  the 
clouds  of  the  Ascension.  Of  course  Mrs.  Eddy  knew 
that  she  could  not  get  up  anything  like  that  for  her- 
self. A  balloon  (aeroplanes  were  not  practically  a 
success  at  the  time)  would  be  rather  too  "  thin  "  as  an 
expedient;  moreover,  she  would  not  have  trusted 
herself,  at  any  rate  without  a  skilled  aeronaut,  in  a 
balloon.  And  then  there  would  have  been  the  diffi- 
culty about  where  to  come  down  (to  say  nothing  about 
the  chance  of  coming  down  too  rapidly),  or  about 
disposing  of  the  necessary  aeronaut.  He  might  be 
killed  and  buried,  of  course ;  but  then  where  was 
she  to  live  without  her  substance-matter  being  dis- 
covered ? 

She  saw  that  a  much  better  way  than  this  balloon 
idea  would  be,  when  the  tirne  really  came  for  her 
to  die,  to  have  her  "  substance-matter  "  safely  boxed 
up  in  concrete.  This  would  practically  make  it  dis- 
appear as  well  as  ascending  into  the  clouds  would, 
if  precautions  were  taken  not  to  have  the  concrete 
broken;  in  this  way  it  could  be  alleged  that  it  was 
all  a  mistake  that  she  had  died  like  other  people.  On 
the  contrary,  her  not  believing  in  substance-matter 
would  have  resulted  in  a  triumph.  It  would  make 
other  people  not  believe  in  it,  in  her  case  at  any  rate. 
For  who  could  prove  the  contrary  ?  Her  "  students  " 
could  say  that  "  her  mortal  or  fleshly  sense  finally 
relinquished  the  belief  of  substance-matter,  and 
spiritual  sense  had  quenched  all  earthly  yearnings," 


140       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

in  her,  and  indeed  in  all  of  her  disciples,  as  far  as 
she  was  concerned. 

And  the  shallow  trick  actually  worked,  surprising  as 
it  may  seem  that  it  should  do  so.  It  was  only  a  kind 
of  last  resort,  for  which  she  probably  did  not  seriously 
expect  success,  but  thought  that  it  might  be  worth  try- 
ing. Human  credulity  proved  to  be  a  more  potent 
factor  than  even  she,  who  had  worked  on  it  with 
great  success  for  so  long,  ever  realized. 

It  would  seem  that  enough  has  been  said,  and 
enough  quotations  have  been  made  of  actual  passages 
in  her  book,  to  show  the  falsity  of  the  doctrines  on 
which  it  rests.  It  is,  indeed,  probable  enough  that 
she  did  not  actually  write  the  book  herself,  but  got 
some  one  else  to  write  it  for  her.  But  even  if  this 
is  the  fact,  it  makes  no  difference.  This  book,  who- 
ever may  have  written  it,  is  the  authorized  expression 
of  the  false  system  which  she  has  been  the  means  of 
introducing,  and  her  approval  of  it  makes  her  as 
thoroughly  responsible  for  it  as  if  it  had  proceeded 
from  her  own  pen;  and  justifies  any  personal  blame 
we  have  imputed  to  her  for  it.  And  this  blame,  of 
course,  is  all  the  greater,  because  she  unquestionably 
gave  it  out,  or  allowed  it  to  be  given  out,  as  a  "  reve- 
lation "  granted  to  her  from  above.  If  she  had  merely 
published  it  as  the  expression  of  her  own  opinions, 
it  might,  of  course,  have  done  some  harm,  but  by  no 
means  so  much ;  but  she  had  the  audacity  to  allow 
herself  to  be  put  on  the  throne  of  God  Himself,  and 
to  be  Divinely  commissioned  to  speak  for  Him.  Of 
course  she  knew  that  this  was  the  only  way  to  get 
a  big  sale  for  it ;  but  that  is  evidently  no  excuse,  but 
makes  it  a  greater  fault  by  far,  than  it  would  be  if 
she   had,   like   other   authors   of    false   theologies   or 


The  Truth  About  Chrislian  Science        141 

philosophies,  merely  given  it  out  as  her  own  interpre- 
'tation  of  what  was  indic;ited  by  reason,  or  as  what 
was  agreed  on  by  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed 
as  being  really  the  Word  of  God,  or  the  Bible. 

Those  who  wish  to  bring  into  the  world  what  they 
regard  as  new  and  valuable  thoughts,  are  content,  if 
they  are  honest,  to  trust  that  they  will  recommend 
themselves  to  sincere  searchers  for  the  truth.  And 
it  is  such  a  pity  for  those  who  are  deceived  by  her. 
For  all  that  there  is  really  valuable  in  the  ideas  which 
she  endeavored  to  propagate  is  already  fully  expressed 
by  sound  Christian  theology. 

All  orthodox  Christians  admit  fully  what  she  is 
constantly  falsely  pretending  that  they  do  not;  that 
Spirit  is  the  origin  not  only  of  all  truth,  but  of  all 
that  exists.  No  one  holds  that  matter  is  in  any  way 
independent  of  its  Creator;  or  that  it  originates  any- 
thing whatever,  simply  by  its  own  power.  And  we 
all  are  perfectly  sure  that  it  can  be  destroyed  entirely 
by  Him  at  any  moment  that  He  may  choose. 

There  is  no  necessity  whatever  for  holding  that  it 
has  no  actual  existence ;  still  less,  if  there  could  be 
less  than  none,  for  limiting  the  power  of  the  Al- 
mighty by  maintaining  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  Him  to  create  it,  or  anything  else.  And  with  re- 
gard to  the  one  point  which  seems  to  be  of  any  in- 
terest to  Mrs.  Eddy  or  her  "  students,"  no  Christian 
supposes  for  a  moment  that  "  drugs. "  or  human  con- 
trivances of  any  sort  are  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
curing  of  disease.  They  are  only  needed,  as  food  or 
drink  are,  for  the  sustaining  of  life.  It  is  simply 
absurd  to  make  a  difference  in  this  respect  between 
food  and  medicine.  Both  are  gifts  of  God,  and  in- 
tended by  Him  to  be  used  in  their  regular  and  ap- 


142        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

propriate  way.  Both  may  be  used  to  excess ;  or  both 
may  be  unduly  neglected.  With  regard  to  food,  Mrs. 
Eddy  followed,  and  all  her  "  scientific  "  followers  un- 
doubtedly now  follow,  the  same  lines  that  are  fol- 
lowed by  other  people.  No  one  believes,  and  she  her- 
self does  not  pretend,  that  she  got  along  without  it, 
or  went  without  her  regular  meals;  she  did  not  put 
out  any  theory  that  a  piece  of  buttered  toast,  or  a  cup 
of  tea,  had  no  real  existence,  and  that  there  was  no 
use  in  partaking  of  either  when  one  felt  hungry  or 
thirsty.  Indeed  she  expressly  reprobates  asceticism 
of  any  kind. 

The  common  sense  of  the  matter  is,  that  food  is 
necessary  for  the  human  machine  in  its  regular  work- 
ing; medicine  only  when  the  working  gets  irregular. 
Or,  in  other  words,  the  care  of  the  body  is  like  that 
of  a  watch;  when  it  is  going  right  all  one  has  to  do 
is  to  wind  it  regularly;  when  it  is  out  of  order  in 
any  way,  one  has  to  regulate  the  balance-wheel,  or  put 
on  a  new  hand,  if  one  of  them  comes  off,  or  a  new 
spring,  if  one  is  broken.  The  only  difficulty  which 
we  meet  with  practically  in  the  treatment  of  the 
body,  is  that  we  can't  find  out  so  well  as  we  can 
with  a  watch,  just  what  it  is  that  has  gone  wrong; 
and  that  even  if  we  do,  we  can't  tell  just  how  to  make 
it  go  right.  Of  course  this  is  the  reason  why  doctors, 
who  know  more  than  others  about  its  construction,  are 
needed  even  more  than  watchmakers  are  for  mending 
a  watch.  It  is  all  just  a  matter  of  common  sense, 
and  nobody  (not  even  Mrs.  Eddy)  who  has  a  bit 
of  that  valuable  quality  throws  it  overboard  when 
watches  are  concerned.  But  when  it  is  a  question  of 
the  body,  a  far  more  complex  machine  than  a  watch, 
people  will  often  jump  at  the  first  quack  remedy  offered 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       143 

to  them,  instead  of  consulting  one  who  ought  to  know ; 
and  will  not,  like  the  presumptuous  Mrs.  Eddy,  get 
up  a  theory,  without  the  slightest  need  for  it,  and 
against  the  plain  evidence  of  common  sense,  that  there 
is  nothing  in  it  going  wrong,  or  that  in  fact  there  is 
nothing  in  it  to  go  wrong,  because  there  is  nothing  in 
it  at  all  to  go  either  right  or  wrong. 

And  in  fact  just  the  same  holds  good  in  the  sub- 
ject of  the  soul  or  spirit  as  in  that  of  the  body. 
Even  Mrs.  Eddy  has  to  acknowledge  that  the  soul, 
spirit  or  mind  (whichever  she  pleases)  does  go  wrong, 
and  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  "  Mind  "  to  which 
she  tries  to  reduce  everything.  She  doesn't  try  to 
blame  the  body  for  this;  indeed  she  can't;  for  she 
doesn't  admit  the  existence  of  the  latter.  So  she 
simply  calls  it  "  mortal  mind,"  and  lets  it  go  at  that. 
She  has  no  apology  or  explanation  for  this  fatal  flaw 
in  her  system ;  for  none  is  possible.  If  the  existence 
of  the  body  is  an  "  error  of  mortal  mind,"  well, 
*' mortal  mind"  has  gone  wrong;  it  has  not  kept  in 
harmony  with  "  Mind ;  "  that  conclusion  is  unavoid- 
able. "  Mind,"  according  to  her,  knows  that  there  is 
no  body;  "mortal  mind"  maintains  there  is.  The 
obvious  need  is  that  "  mortal  mind  "  has  got  to  be 
cured  of  this.  Indeed  the  curing  of  this  error,  sick- 
ness, or  disease,  in  it  is  just  the  object  of  her  book, 
and  of  her  whole  system. 

But  the  question  which  naturally  comes  to  our 
*'  mortal  mind "  about  this  is,  why  should  not  the 
body  be  allowed  to  have  real  existence  also?  If  you 
are  going  to  believe  that  "mortal  mind"  exists  fas  it 
must  if  it  is  to  fall  into  "error"),  why  not  let  the 
body  exist  too?  Why  not  honestly  confess  that  you 
believe  what  common  sense  compels  you  to  believe, 


144       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

or  rather  to  see  and  know  as  a  fact,  instead  of  giving 
out  this  nonsense  about  the  non-existence  of  matter, 
which  you  don't  really  believe  yourself,  and  have  to 
forget  as  soon  as  you  begin  to  talk  practically  about 
anything  at  all  ?  For  all  the  healing  of  the  sick  which 
you  can  accomplish  by  any  such  ideas  can  be  accom- 
plished just  as  well  without  them.  And  more,  indeed, 
can  be  done  if  you  try  to  put  yourself  in  union  with 
God's  holy  will  and  ask  His  aid,  instead  of  pretend- 
ing that  there  is  no  need  to  ask  for  it.  The  healing 
of  the  sick  by  the  direct  help  of  God  (or  "  Mind  "  as, 
according  to  your  fad,  you  call  Him)  can  be  done, 
and  has  been  done  right  along,  and  is  now  done  fre- 
quently, in  His  Church.  We  all  have  almost  daily 
experience  of  these  cures  that  you  brag  so  much  about. 
It  is  no  new  thing;  it  only  seems  new  to  you,  be- 
cause you  do  not  know  so  well  how  to  bring  it  about 
as  we  do.  Why  make  a  fool  of  yourself,  teach  non- 
sense, and  throw  away  common  sense,  for  no  object 
and  for  no  advantage? 

There  is  one  curious  passage  in  this  chapter  on  this 
subject  which  may  be  worth  mentioning.  It  is  as 
follows :  "  This  understanding  of  man's  power,  when 
he  is  equipped  by  God,  has  sadly  disappeared  from 
Christian  history.  For  centuries  it  has  been  dormant, 
a  lost  element  of  Christianity.  Our  missionaries  carry 
the  Bible  to  India,  but  can  it  be  said  that  they  explain 
it  practically,  when  hundreds  of  persons  die  there 
annually  from  serpent  bites.  Understanding  spiritual 
law,  and  knowing  that  there  is  no  material  law,  Jesus 
said,  'These  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe — 
they  shall  take  up  serpents,  and  if  they  drink  any 
deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt  them.'  " 

In  this  IMrs.  Eddy  appears  to  be  trying  to  give  the 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        145 

impression  that  she  was  quite  in  the  habit  of  taking 
up  serpents,  and  getting  no  injury  from  them,  and 
that  the  same  can  be  easily  done  by  any  real  Christian 
Scientist;  whereas  she  knew  very  well  that  she  had 
never  ventured  on  anything  of  the  kind ;  nor  had  she 
ever  taken  a  dose  of  prussic  acid  to  prove  that  the 
common  idea  that  there  was  a  material  law,  making 
the  experiment  a  fatal  one,  was  merely  an  illusion. 
But  if  her  notion  that  there  are  no  material  laws  were 
correct,  there  was  no  reason  why  she  should  not  have 
made  experiments  of  this  kind,  and  no  reason  why  they 
should  not  succeed.  That  they  do  not  succeed  is  a 
conclusive  argument  against  her  whole  theory;  and 
that  she  did  not  try  them  is  a  clear  proof  that  she  her- 
self did  not  believe  in  it. 

The  Christian  view  of  the  matter,  of  course,  is  that 
in  fact  there  are  material  laws,  which  will  work 
uniformly  unless  He  Who  has  made  these  laws  chooses 
to  suspend  them  on  some  special  occasion,  or  unless 
some  force  (which  may  be  merely  a  natural  one,  like 
that  of  medicine)  neutralizes  their  operation.  This 
last  is  the  usual  case,  as  we  all  know.  And  we  do 
not  expect  that  the  Lord  will  bring  about  any  re- 
sult other  than  the  natural  one,  unless  there  is  some 
exceptional  reason  for  it,  as  there  was  in  the  case  of 
St.  Paul,  when  he  shook  off  the  viper,  to  show  the 
Divine  protection  which  they  who  were  sent  by  Him 
to  preach  might  well  expect.  It  is  not  for  us  to  de- 
termine when  such  reasons  may  exist.  We  are,  how- 
ever, quite  sure  that  they  are  exceptional ;  that  they 
cannot  be  depended  on,  as  a  rule.  Our  Lord  Himself 
did  not  habitually  take  up  serpents  and  have  them 
bite  Him,  nor  did  He  drink  poisons  regularly,  instead 
of  water  or  wine.    Nor  did  He  try  dangerous  experi- 


146       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

ments  of  any  kind,  just  to  prove  that  for  an  advanced 
*'  student  "  like  Himself  they  were  not  dangerous. 

There  is  one  very  notable  example  that  has  been 
recorded,  just  to  teach  us,  as  it  were,  the  errors  of 
Eddyism.  There  is  no  need  to  give  it  in  detail,  for 
we  all  know  it.  It  occurred  in  the  temptation  of 
Christ  by  Satan,  who  urged  Our  Lord  to  cast  Him- 
self down  from  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  because 
the  angels  would  bear  Him  up.  Satan  would  not  need 
any  such  reason  for  a  genuine  Eddyite,  if  there  were 
such  a  person.  All  he  would  have  to  say  to  such  an 
one  would  be  that  ''  this  notion  of  the  material  law 
of  gravitation  is  an  error  of  mortal  mind;  and  since 
you  have,  by  union  with  Mind,  got  over  such  errors, 
you  will  be  quite  safe.  You  need  not  think  or  worry 
about  angels  at  all,  for  in  fact  there  are  not  any ;  and 
even  if  there  wxre  you  wouldn't  need  them." 

Our  Lord's  actual  reply  to  this  Eddian  temptation 
was,  as  we  know :  "  Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord 
thy  God."  The  word  which  we  translate  "  tempt  "  is, 
in  the  Greek,  ''  ekpeiraseis,"  from  which  our  word 
"  experiment "  is  derived.  So  Christ's  answer  simply 
means  that  we  must  not  try  dangerous  experiments 
with  the  Lord  our  God,  to  show  that  His  natural  laws 
do  not  hold.  To  try  such  experiments  in  order  to 
prove  such  theories  by  them,  when  the  facts  are 
already  known,  is  precisely  the  Eddian  idea,  to  re- 
fuse medical  treatment,  is  an  actual  case  of  its  appli- 
cation. 

One  other  little  question  may  as  well  be  again  asked 
of  Eddian  ''  students."  How  is  it,  if  these  laws  of 
matter  are  ''  errors  of  mortal  mind  "  that  their  results, 
when  there  is  nothing  to  interfere  with  them,  are  so 
remarkably  accurate?     Accuracy,   and  agreement  of 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        147 

fulfillment  with  prediction,  are  not  the  results  we 
should  expect  from  "  error."  How  is  it  that  a  solar 
eclipse  can  be  foretold  within  one  or  tw^o  seconds  of 
time,  by  means  of  these  laws,  many  years  before  it 
occurs  ? 

Again  we  may  repeat  that  the  All-w^ise  Mind  is 
not  going  to  bring  in  new  forces  to  counteract  the 
laws  which  He  has  established,  still  less  to  suspend 
or  nullify  them,  unless  there  are  good  reasons  for  do- 
ing so.  He  is  not  going  to  subject  them  to  the  caprices 
of  the  mortal  mind  of  Mrs.  Eddy  or  anyone  else.  But 
He  will  depart  from  the  regular  course  of  the  universe 
which  He  has  created,  when  for  His  own  glory,  or 
even  for  our  good.  He  sees  fit  to  do  so. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  when  He  said  that  "  those 
who  believe  shall  take  up  serpents,  or  drink  any  deadly 
thing,"  or  "  that  they  should  lay  hands  on  the  sick, 
and  they  shall  recover,"  it  w^as  not  His  intention 
that  this  should  happen  every  time;  for  that  w^ould 
be  simply  to  turn  over  His  creation  for  us  to  fool 
with,  on  the  mere  condition  that  we  believed  that 
w^e  had  power  and  permission  to  take  upon  ourselves 
the  management  of  it  for  Him. 

It  is  really  wonderful  that  there  can  be  well-mean- 
ing people  who  do  not  see  that  this  promise  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  presents  to  them  of  curing  all  diseases, 
and  of  overcoming  death  itself  by  her  "  Science,"  is 
the  identical  one  which  the  Scripture  tells  us  was 
made  by  Satan  to  our  first  parents  of  obtaining  eternal 
life  by  having  their  eyes  opened  so  as  to  have  the 
science  or  knowledge  which  God  had  chosen  to  reserve 
to  Himself.  ''  You  shall  not  die  the  death,"  said 
Satan ;    and  that  is  exactly  what  Mrs.  Eddy  says. 

But  it  is  not  surprising  that  when  such  people  be- 


148       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

lieve  this  Satanic  promise  which  she  offers,  they 
shouM  lose,  as  Adam  and  Eve  did,  the  union  with  God 
which  was  their  right  in  the  beginning,  by  the  grace 
of  Christ,  Who  had  redeemed  it  for  them;  and  that 
they  should  also  lose  even  all  desire  to  obtain  it.  No 
one  tries  to  obtain  what  he  imagines  that  he  already 
possesses ;  and  the  Eddian  idea  is  that  you  are  united 
to  Mind  by  simply  saying  that  there  is  nothing  else 
to  be  united  to,  and  that  in  fact  you  are  part  of  it, 
or  a  ''  reflection  "  of  it  already ;  that  there  is  no  sin 
in  you,  as  well  as  no  sickness.  This  indifference  to 
sin  is  one  of  the  salient  features  of  this  false 
"  science."  There  is  no  need  of  prayer  in  it,  in  the 
usual  sense  of  the  word.  If  there  seems  to  be  any 
sin  to  trouble  you,  it  is  only  part  of  this  "  error " 
about  sickness  and  death.  You  don't  need  to  pray 
about  it,  but  only  to  absorb  Mrs.  Eddy's  ideas  more 
thoroughly,  and  it  will  cease  to  bother  you.  There 
is  no  repentance  or  purpose  of  amendment  needed  for 
it,  any  more  than  there  would  be  for  a  toothache; 
both  are  merely  imaginary,  and  all  you  have  to  do 
is  to  get  over  the  imagination  of  them.  And  of 
course  it  is  the  same  way,  if  you  want  to  help  others. 
You  don't  need  to  get  them  out  of  their  sins,  even 
if  they  think  they  have  such,  but  only  to  make  them 
stop  thinking  so.  Just  sit  by  them,  and  think  over 
Mrs.  Eddy's  wonderful  discoveries  instead  of  these 
nonsensical  sins,  and  encourage  them  to  do  the  same. 
That  may  be  tiresome,  but  if  you  succeed,  it  ought  to 
be  worth  five  dollars  at  any  rate ;  and,  strange  as 
it  may  seem,  there  is  nothing  imaginary  about  that. 
Mrs.  Eddy  acknowledges,  it  would  seem,  in  this  chap- 
ter, that  she  had  not  succeeded  in  walking  on  the  water, 
or  in  raising  the  dead ;   but  as  to  getting  people  out  of 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       149 

sin,  that  was  so  easy,  on  the  principles  just  laid  down, 
that  there  was  no  need  to  make  any  prolonged  studies, 
or  complicated  experiments,  on  it.  And  it  was  not  of 
much  consequence,  anyway.  Sickness  and  death  were 
the  really  important  things  to  get  rid  of.  Her  ideas, 
as  we  easily  see,  were  more  advanced  than  those  of 
the  angel,  who  said  to  St.  Joseph,  ''  Thou  shalt  call  His 
name.  Jesus,  for  He  shall  save  His  people  from  their 
sins."  Mrs.  Eddy  would  have  said  to  the  angel, 
"  Why  don't  you  say  'their  sicknesses'  instead  of  'their 
sins?'"  Her  idea,  often  plainly  stated,  is  that  He 
came  to  heal  the  sick,  and  show  others  how  to  do  it; 
not  to  show  His  power  or  prove  His  mission  for 
more  important  matters,  but  because  it  was  in  itself 
the  most  important  of  all. 

But  ''  our  Master  "  Himself  had  an  idea  differing 
from  that  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  (This  was  due,  of  course, 
to  His  being  only  an  imperfect  "  student "  of  Eddian 
Science.)  ''  That  you  may  knoiv,"  He  said  to  the 
people,  "  that  the  Son  of  Man  hath  pozver  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins,  He  saith  to  the  sick  of  the  palsy,  I  say 
to  thee  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed,  and  go  into  thy  house  " 
(Mark  ii.  10,  11,  and  Luke  v.  24). 

If  He  had  gone  as  deeply  into  the  matter  as  Mrs. 
Eddy,  He  would  have  understood  that  the  really  im- 
portant thing  was  to  cure  the  illusion  of  the  sick  man 
that  he  was  really  sick ;  as  to  forgiving  his  sins,  they 
consisted  simply  in  his  giving  way  to  this  illusion  of 
thinking  that  his  body  actually  existed.  Or,  if  there 
were  others,  they  were  of  little  importance  compared 
with  this  one,  and  would  disappear  of  themselves  if 
this  one  was  got  rid  of. 

We,  however,  and  Christians  in  general,  prefer,  in 
our  blindness,  to  take  Our  Lord's  judgment  of  the 


150       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

matter,  rather  than  that  of  the  illustrious  founder  of 
Eddian  science;  and  to  believe  that  sin  or  willful 
disobedience  to  God,  is  our  great  soul-sickness,  and 
the  reason  for  our  bodily  ailments,  though  they  are 
not  given  to  us  in  proportion  to  our  own  personal 
sins.  If  the  latter  are  forgiven,  we  cannot,  however, 
always  expect  that  the  ailments  will  be  cured,  for 
they  may  be  blessings  in  disguise,  by  giving  us  the 
privilege  of  sharing  in  the  great  work  which  Christ 
our  Saviour  has  taken  on  Himself  of  suffering  for 
our  sins.  And  it  may  well  be  that  those  who  are 
most  united  to  Him,  and  love  most,  will  have  the  best 
share  of  this,  if  He  sees  that  they  are  able  to  bear 
it.  He  asks  of  .His  chosen  Apostles,  the  sons  of 
Zebedee,  who  wished  for  the  chief  places  in  His  King- 
dom, "Can  you  drink  the  chalice  that  I  shall  drink? 
They  say  to  Him,  we  can.  He  saith  to  them:  My 
chalice  indeed  you  shall  drink ;  but  to  sit  on  My  right 
or  left  hand,  is  not  Mine  to  give  to  you,  but  to  them 
for  whom  it  is  prepared  by  My  Father"  (Matt.  xx. 
22,  23).  And  why  for  others  rather  than  for  them? 
Simply  because  there  were  a  few  others  who  loved 
Him  and  were  willing  to  suffer  with  Him,  even  more 
than  they. 

The  martyrs  who  suffered,  even  to  death,  for  Him 
are  confessed  by  all  Christians  to  be  His  chief 
favorites.  But  Mrs.  Eddy's  gospel  is  meant  to  show 
us  how  to  escape  from  bodily  suffering,  the  most 
common  form  of  which  is  sickness  and  disease.  And 
she  even  would  encourage  us  to  think  that  we  can 
escape  from  death  itself,  if  we  thoroughly  believe  in 
this  gospel,  though  it  is  probable  that  she  did  not 
believe  in  it  herself  to  quite  that  extent.  It  is  a 
gospel   which   human   nature  gladly  accepts,   and   is. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        151 

of  course,  naturally  an  attractive  one  to  all  of  us. 
But  the  only  union  with  God  which  it  offers  is  one 
which  is  only  intellectual  and  requires  no  sacrifice, 
except  a  little  ''  study,"  to  attain  it.  It  is  a  curious 
feature  of  it  that  though  it  dwells  much  on  the  truth 
that  God  is  Love,  she  says  comparatively  little  on  our 
showing  any  love  for  Him  by  sacrificing  anything  else 
for  Him.  And  His  own  Love  is  to  be  principally 
shown  by  sparing  us  any  such  sacrifice. 

There  is  another  remarkable  feature  in  it,  which 
of  course  must  have  been  noticed  by  almost  everyone. 
It  is  that  she  never  seems  to  think  of  any  other 
trouble  which  we  meet  with  in  life,  except  this  one 
of  bodily  illness.  And  yet  there  are  others  which 
one  would  expect  her  to  pay  some  attention  to. 
Among  them  perhaps  the  most  notable  of  all  is  that 
of  poverty,  about  which  people  in  general  worry  more 
than  about  anything  else,  and  try  hardest  to  avoid, 
and  from  which,  in  these  modern  days,  the  masses 
suffer  continually  more  and  more.  One  reason  for 
her  inattention  to  it  may  be  that  her  gospel  is  not 
addressed  to  the  poor;  though  that  of  Christ,  by 
His  own  statement,  was  so  (Matt.  xi.  5,  and  many 
other  places).  And  evidently,  as  a  result  of  this,  most 
of  those  who  actually  have  accepted  it  are  those  in 
comfortable  circumstances  in  this  respect. 

Another  reason,  it  would  seem,  was  that  she  could 
not  quite  make  even  herself  to  believe  or  pretend 
to  believe  that  poverty  is  like  sickness,  merely  an 
illusion  of  mortal  mind.  She  knew  that  she  could 
not  make  the  poor  believe,  when  they  needed  food 
or  clothing,  or  money  to  procure  these  necessities, 
that  their  trouble  could  be  got  over  by  simply  imagin- 
ing that  they  had  them.    Indeed  such  imaginings  would 


152        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

probably  only  make  their  suffering  greater.  And  yet 
one  does  not  exactly  see  the  difference  between  hunger 
or  thirst  and  other  bodily  sufferings.  If  one  can  get 
over  the  smallpox  by  simply  ignoring  it  or  considering 
it  as  an  illusion,  why  can't  an  empty  stomach  be 
treated  in  the  same  way?  Or  even  an  empty  purse? 
To  be  really  consistent,  she  would  have  said,  "  Even 
if  your  purse  seemed  to  be  stuffed  with  bills  and  coin, 
there  is  no  real  existence  in  matter,  which  they  would 
seem  to  be."  x\nd  even  if  you  had  just  had  a  good 
dinner,  and  plenty  of  wine  or  beer  to  drink,  there 
would  be  no  real  existence  in  this ;  it  would  be  merely 
one  of  the  many  illusions  or  delusions  of  ''  mortal 
mind."  You  would  be  really  just  as  well  off  without 
them  as  with  them.  But  she  quite  realized  that  all 
this  would  be  too  much  of  a  strain  on  the  credulity 
of  anyone.     So  the  less  said  about  it  the  better. 

This  one  little  point,  if  brought  to  the  front,  she 
reasonably  feared  would  be  enough  to  discredit  her 
whole  gospel.  So  the  best  way,  the  only  way  in  fact, 
was  just  to  keep  declaiming  about  Mind,  mortal  mind, 
and  the  impossibility  of  being  sick;  and,  moreover, 
one  couldn't  get  any  money  out  of  the  business  either 
to.  build  churches  or  to  teach  "  science  "  in  any  way, 
on  any  such  principle  as  this.  By  maintaining  that 
there  was  no  such  thing  as  money,  one  could  not  get 
enough  of  it  even  for  one's  own  personal  needs ;  so 
that  wouldn't  do  at  all.  There  would  be  no  "  Science 
of  being"  (at  any  rate  well-being)  on  any  such  prin- 
ciple as  that. 

This  chapter  concludes  with  what  Mrs.  Eddy  very 
appropriately  calls  a  ''platform,"  in  which  she  says, 
"  the  infallibility  of  divine  metaphysics  "  (as  opposed, 
we  suppose,  to  the  human  physic  of  "  drugs  ")  is  to 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        153 

be  demonstrated.  That  is  just  what  it  is,  a  "  plat- 
form "  on  which  to  run  her  campaign  for  success. 
The  various  errors  scattered  through  her  book  are 
fairly  well  contained  in  it,  so  that  it  would  be  waste 
of  time  to  go  through  it  in  detail,  as  most  of  them 
liave   already  been  pretty  thoroughly   noticed. 

In  this  "  platform,"  as  is  often  the  case  with  po- 
litical ones,  the  real  issues  are  dodged,  if  this  seems 
to  be  expedient  in  order  to  catch  votes.  There  is 
little  in  it  that  she  has  not  said  before.  Still  w^e  will 
take  a  look  at  its  planks. 

First  Plank :  It  begins  by  denying,  as  she  has  done 
so  often,  the  whole  dogma  of  creation.  Not  only  is 
it  beyond  the  power  of  the  Almighty  to  create  mat- 
ter, but  He  cannot  create  any  intelligence,  however 
finite.  "  God  is  the  only  intelligence  of  the  universe," 
she  says.  Moreover,  "  the  individuality  of  Spirit,  or 
the  infinite  personality,  is  unknown ;  "  absolutely  un- 
known, even  to  Mrs.  Eddy.  But  really,  of  course, 
from  what  has  just  been  laid  down,  there  is  not  any 
Mrs.  Eddy,  and  there  never  was  any.  Or  if  there 
was,  there  was  no  intelligence  in  her.  She  says  that 
the  knowledge  of  Spirit  "  is  left  to  human  conjecture, 
or  to  the  revelation  of  divine  science."  But  ''  conjec- 
ture "  certainly  seems  to  need  some  sort  of  intelli- 
gence. If  then,  no  intelligence  exists  anywhere  in 
the  universe,  except  in  God,  where  does  the  "  human 
conjecture"  come  in?  And  if  there  is  no  human  in- 
telligence, how  can  there  be  any  human  conjecture? 
And  how  can  there  be  any  '^  revelation  of  divine 
Science,"  without  some  intelligence  to  reveal  it  to? 
Spirit,  Mind,  of  course,  is  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
divine  Science,  and  needs  no  revelation  of  it. 

It  is  really  astonishing  that  Mrs.  Eddy  could  have 


154       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

blundered  so  badly  as  this.  But  it  might  be  explained, 
if  she  really  had  no  intelligence,  as  she  would  have 
us  believe  to  be  the  case. 

Second  Plank  :  In  this  she  gives  us  something  which 
she  tries  to  pass  off  on  us  for  an  argument;  at  any 
rate,  the  word  "  therefore "  occurs  in  it.  She  re- 
minds us  of  a  good  Episcopal  negro,  whom  we  once 
knew,  who  put  a  "  therefore  "  in  every  response  to 
the  Psalms  when  he  was  reciting  them  in  church.  He 
thought  it  had  a  good  sound,  probably.  The  ''  argu- 
ment "  is  so  remarkable,  that  we  must  give  it  just  as 
it  stands. 

"  Mind,"  she  tells  us,  "  is  not  both  good  and  bad, 
for  God  is  Mind;  therefore  there  is  in  reality  one 
Mind  only,  because  there  is   (only)   one  God." 

We  have  put  in  the  ''  only,"  for  it  seemed  to  be 
needed.  In  this  ''  argument,"  we  may  leave  out  the 
*' not  good  and  bad"  (for  it  seems  to  be  irrelevant) 
and  simply. put  it  in  this  way: 

1.  ''There  is  only  one  God." 

2.  "Mind"   (with  a  big  M)   is  my  word  for  God. 

3.  Therefore,  there  is  only  one  mind,  with  either  a 
big  M  or  a  small  one. 

Third  Plank :  "  The  notion  that  both  evil  and  good 
are  real  is  a  delusion  of  material  sense,  which  Science 
annihilates.  Evil  is  nothing,  no  thing,  mind  or 
power." 

It  seems  natural  to  ask  her,  once  more,  what  in 
the  world  is  "mortal  mind?"  It  must  be  some  kind 
of  mind,  if  we  have  due  regard  for  grammar.  But 
it  would  seem  to  be  evil,  for  it  has,  we  are  told,  its 
delusions  and  deceives  us.  How  is  it,  then,  that  evil 
is  no  mind?  Mrs.  Eddy,  perhaps,  would  say,  "  Never 
mind;    I  say  so,  and  that  settles  it." 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       155 

Fourth  Plank:  ''If  He  dwelt  within  what  He 
creates,  God  would  not  be  reflected,  but  absorbed." 
The  same  old  idea  that  the  being  of  God  is  a  matter 
of  space,  and  finite  space  too  at  that.  Light,  in  the 
physical  sense,  can't  be  reflected  if  it  is  all  absorbed. 
But  what  does  she  mean  by  God's  being  reflected,  any- 
way? It  is  a  favorite  word  of  hers.  How  can  any- 
thing, on  this  notion  of  hers^  be  reflected,  except  by 
something  outside  of  itself?  Then  after  all,  there 
must  be  something  in  some  way  outside  of  God.  But 
she  has  just  told  us  that  there  is  no  intelligence  out- 
side of  God ;  and  she  often  tells  us  that  matter  has 
no  existence  whatever.  What  is  it,  then,  that  reflects 
God?  She  also  states  in  this  plank,  that  "life  is 
no  more  confined  to  the  forms  which  reflect  it  than 
substance  is  to  its  shadow."  But  whom  is  she  hitting 
at?    Whoever  said  that  it  was? 

Fifth  Plank :  Here  again  we  find  that  "  nothing 
possesses  reality  or  existence  except  the  divine  Mind 
and  His  ideas ;  "  just  another  denial  of  creation,  and 
of  herself  as  a  part  of  it.  Then  she  sagely  remarks 
that  ''God  is  Spirit;"  and  that  "in  Spirit  (meaning 
God)  all  is  Life,  and  there  is  no  death.  Everything 
in  God's  universe  expresses  Him."  Of  course  we  all 
admit  that.  But  the  last  sentence  is  rather  vague. 
And  it  seems  rather  inconsistent,  for  according  to  her 
teaching,  there  isn't  anything  in  God's  universe,  except 
Himself  to  express  Him. 

Sixth  Plank:  In  this  the  same  misapprehension  as 
to  the  Divine  infinity  comes  out  again.  God,  it  tells 
us,  "  fills  all  space,  and  it  is  impossible  to  conceive 
of  such  omnipresence  or  individuality  except  as  in- 
finite Spirit  of  Mind." 

In  fact,  the  notion  of  God  as  "  filling  all  space," 


156       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

in  the  material  sense  in  which  she  holds  it,  shuts  out 
that  of  "  individuality,"  in  the  proper  or  grammatical 
sense  of  the  word.  "  Individuality  "  means,  properly, 
indivisibility;  but  if  God  fills  all  space,  according  to 
her  notion,  part  of  Him  would  be  in  one  part  of  it, 
another  part  in  another.  The  term  does  apply  to  God, 
and  to  all  spiritual  beings ;  Airs.  Eddy  is  right  enough 
about  that.  But  the  idea  of  "filling  all  space"  is 
incompatible  with  it.  This  mistake  is  likely  to  oc- 
cur with  people  like  Mrs.  Eddy,  whose  notions  are 
mainly  materialistic,  and  derived  from  the  material 
senses. 

Seventh  Plank :  This  is  truly  a  hodge-podge.  "  Life, 
Truth,  and  Love,"  we  are  told,  constitute  the  triune 
Person  called  God — that  is,  the  triply  divine  Prin- 
ciple, Love.  They  represent  a  trinity  in  unity,  three 
in  one — the  same  in  essence,  though  multiform  in 
office:  God  the  Father-Mother;  Christ  the  spiritual 
idea  of  sonship ;  divine  Science  or  the  Holy  Com- 
forter. These  three  express  in  divine  Science  the 
threefold  essential  nature  of  the  infinite.  They  also 
indicate  the  divine  Principle  of  scientific  being,  the 
intelligent  relation  of  God  to  man  and  the  universe. 

It  has  seemed  worth  the  space  needed  to  quote  this 
in  full,  as  a  choice  specimen  of  unmeaningness.  Poor 
Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to  have  glanced  at  some  theological 
works  on  the  Holy  Trinity,  and  thought  that  she 
would  just  dash  at  a  sort  of  imitation  of  their 
language,  in  which  her  pet  words,  "  principle,  rep- 
resent, express,  indicate,"  etc.,  could  be  utilized. 

Eighth  Plank :  "  Father-Mother  is  the  name  for 
Deity,  which  indicates  His  (why  not  His-Her?)  ten- 
der relationship  to  His  (or  His-Her)  spiritual  crea- 
tion."    The  chief  difficulty  in  this  is  that  there  isn't, 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        157 

according  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  any  creation,  material  or  even 
spiritual,  towards  which  to  have  a  tender  relation,  as 
she  already  has  sufficiently  shown.  As  to  ''  Father- 
Mother,"  we  fail  to  see  any  need  of  bringing  in  the 
idea  of  sex  in  Deity  at  all.  When  we  are  told  that 
Father-Mother  is  the  name  for  Deity,  it  merely  means 
that  this  name  is  a  fad  of  ^Irs.  Eddy's,  for  w4iich 
she  does  not  scruple  to  pervert  the  words  of  Scripture. 

Ninth,  Tenth  and  Eleventh  Planks :  The  main  object 
of  these  planks  is  to  assert  that  Christ  never  actually 
existed.  He  was  only  an  idea,  '*  voicing  "  good.  And 
the  same  must  be  held  even  if  you  call  Him  by  the 
name  of  Jesus.  The  "  corporeal "  man  Jesus,  we 
learn,  "  was  human."  But  of  course,  there  really 
never  was  any  human  being;  we  have  learned  that, 
at  any  rate.  Nothing  really  exists  except  the  Divine. 
These  seeming  existences  were  only  "  expressions." 
Christ  Jesus  "  expressed  "  the  highest  type  of  divinity 
which  a  fleshly  form  could  express  in  that  age,  when 
Mrs.  Eddy,  the  highest  possible  type,  had  not  yet  been 
revealed. 

Twelfth  Plank :  In  this  plank,  the  poor  woman 
goes  out  of  her  way  to  show  her  ignorance.  As  to 
our  Saviour's  name,  Jesus,  she  would  have  it  that 
this  was  just  a  name  that  happened  to  be  given  to 
Him,  as  it  was  to  Joshua^  who  brought  the  Israelites 
into  the  Promised  Land.  But  she  omits  to  say,  and 
seems  not  to  know,  that  it  means  Saviour,  and  had 
that  meaning  in  Joshua's  case  also.  As  to  that  of 
Our  Lord  Himself,  its  meaning  ought  to  have  been 
still  more  evident.  "  Thou  shalt  call  His  name 
Jesus,"  said  the  angel  to  St.  Joseph,  "  for  He  shall 
save  His  people  from  their  sins."  But  she  really  was 
not  very  w^ell  up  on  Scripture. 


158       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

As  to  His  name  Christ,  she  hazards  a  guess  that 
"  it  expresses  God's  spiritual,  external  nature."  Any 
ordinary  student  of  Greek  knows  that  it  simply  means 
*'  anointed."  Christ  Jesus  is  literally  translated 
''Anointed  Saviour;"  Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  tells  us 
that  it  "  signifies  the  Godlike  "  better  than  Jesus  the 
Christ ;  which  she  says  was  *'  the  proper  name  of  our 
Master  in  the  Greek."  (Just  why  it  should  have  any 
different  or  '*  better  "  signification  in  one  order  of  the 
words  rather  than  in  the  reverse,  is,  of  course,  not 
apparent.) 

The  whole  business  is  a  curious  example  of  a  sort 
of  brazen  stupidity.  Somebody,  it  seems,  must  have 
told  the  poor  creature  that  the  Greek  word  '*  Christ  " 
and  Hebrew  word  "  Messiah  "  were,  as  she  correctly 
states,  synonymous ;  but  she  seems  to  have  forgotten 
to  ask  what  either  of  them  meant.  So  she  just 
guessed  that  they  must  mean  "  spirituality  "  in  some 
way,  for  she  had  that  word  as  one  of  her  fads  ; 
though  her  notions  of  spirituality  were,  as  we  have 
seen,  quite  materialistic.  As  to  the  Greek  word  "Jesus," 
or  the  Hebrew  "  Joshua,"  she  seems  to  have  thought 
that  they  couldn't  mean  much  of  anything.  They  were 
just  names,  that  was  all. 

Thirteenth  Plank :  In  this  she  seems  to  have  felt 
the  difficulty  caused  by  Our  Lord's  assertions  of  His 
Divinity,  which  we  have  already  mentioned,  and  tried 
to  get  out  of  it  as  follows :  "  The  divine  image,  idea, 
or  Christ  was,  is,  and  ever  will  be,  inseparable  from 
the  divine  Principle,  God."  So,  she  tells  us,  that 
when  Jesus  said,  "Before  Abraham  was,  I  Am,"  all  that 
He  meant  was  that  this  "  Christ,"  as  the  "  spiritual 
idea — the  reflection  of  God  " — was  lying  around,  as 
it  were,  loose  in  the  world,  even  before  Abraham's 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       159 

time ;  and  that  Abraham,  Jacob,  Moses  and  the 
prophets  "  caught  glorious  glimpses  "  of  it ;  and  in- 
deed it  would  appear  that,  according  to  her,  this  was 
all  that  Jesus  Himself  claimed  to  have.  A  steady 
view  of  it,  of  course,  was  reserved  for  Mrs.  Eddy, 
wdio  in  the  fullness  of  time  was  to  be  revealed. 

How  much  better  it  would  have  been  for  Mrs. 
Eddy  if  Our  Lord,  when  He  saw  that  the  Jews  did 
not  understand  what  He  said  about  Abraham,  had 
simply  explained  that  His  meaning  was  that  "  the  one 
Spirit  includes  all  identities,"  as  He  might  have  done 
if  Mrs.  Eddy  had  been  there  to  prompt  Him  with 
these  words  of  her  plank.  That  would  have  stopped 
at  once  their  taking  up  stones  to  cast  at  Him,  and 
set  them  merely  to  puzzling  as  to  what  He  was 
talking  about  now.  When  they  gave  it  up,  they 
might  have  sent  someone  to  inquire,  and  have  got 
the  whole  "  platform,"  or  as  much  of  it  as  He  had 
yet  learned. 

Fourteenth  Plank :  In  this  we  have  simply  a  repe- 
tition of  the  preceding  one  to  show  that  she  really 
meant  it. 

Fifteenth  Plank :  In  this  we  have  it  in  a  slightly 
different  shape,  combined  with  her  ignorance  as  to 
what  the  word  "  Christ  "  means.  Another  notion  now 
comes  in,  that  the  name  "  Jesus  "  was  somehow  con- 
nected with  His  bodily  appearance  (which  of  course 
was  a  delusion  of  mortal  mind)  and  of  course  only 
lasted  till  the  cloud  (of  course  another  delusion)  took 
its  place.  Poor  woman !  She  has,  it  may  be,  got 
over  her  delusions  now.  One  day  she  will  do  so, 
even  more  completely ;  the  day  of  which  St.  John 
tells  us,  when  He  will  come  with  the  clouds  again. 
"  Behold,  He  cometh  with  the  clouds,  and  every  eye 


i6o       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

shall    see    Him,    and    they    also    that   pierced    Him " 
(Apoc.  i.  7). 

She  leaves  out  all  this  first  part  of  the  Apocalypse 
from  her  absurd  "  key  of  the  Scriptures."  It  is  a 
wonder  that  she  was  not  warned  by  its  concluding 
words  (though  she  also  leaves  them  out) : 

"  If  any  man  shall  take  away  from  the  words  of 
the  book  of  this  prophecy,  God  shall  take  away  his 
part  out  of  the  book  of  life,  and  Out  of  the  holy 
city,  and  from  these  things  that  are  written  in  this 
book." 

But  she  doesn't  care  an  atom,  nor,  as  it  would  ap- 
pear, do  her  deluded  "  students,"  for  St.  John  or  any- 
body else.  Science  and  Health  is  the  only  book  that 
she  gives  to  them  as  inspired.  What  was  Christ  Him- 
self but  a  very  imperfect  "  student  "  of  her  revela- 
tion which  was  to  come?  And  what  could  His 
Apostles  be,  but  second-hand  students,  knowing  even 
less  than  He? 

Sixteenth  Plank :  In  this,  she  ventures  even  further 
in  her  audacious  tampering  with  Scripture.  ''  The 
Revelator  "  (not  that  she  cares  a  snap  for  Him,  ex- 
cept as  a  hook  to  hang  her  delusions  on)  she  says, 
''represents  the  Son  of  Man  as  saying:  'I  am  the 
first  and  the  last:  I  am  He  that  liveth  and  was  dead 
(not  understood),  and  behold,  I  am  alive  for  ever- 
more (Science  has  explained  me).'  This  is  a  mystical 
statement  of  the  eternity  of  the  Christ,  and  is  also 
a  reference  to  the  human  sense  of  Jesus  crucified." 
The  only  thing  needed  to  complete  the  enormity  of 
this  would  be  to  say  something  about  the  "  eternity 
of  the  Eddy." 

Seventeenth  Plank:  In  this  we  find  a  "theory" 
mentioned,  that  spirit  is  distinct  from  matter,  but  must 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       l6i 

pass  through  it,  or  into  it,  to  be  individualized."  Won- 
der who  holds  or  ever  held  this  crazy  notion !  No 
Christian  of  any  kind,  so  far  as  heard  from.  Perhaps 
it  was  Eddy  herself. 

Eighteenth  Plank :  Here  we  find  creation  denied 
again ;  she  does  not  really  seem  to  have  any  idea  what 
the  word  means.  The  following  passage  is  particularly 
rich :  "  There  is  nothing  in  Spirit  out  of  which  mat- 
ter could  be  made;"  as  if  it  were  necessary  to  have 
something  to  make  it  "  out  of."  Then  follows  this 
gem :  *'  For,"  as  the  Bible  declares,  she  remarks 
with  a  triumphant  air,  "  without  the  Logos,  the  ^on 
or  Word  of  God,  was  not  anything  made  that  w^as 
made."  She  actually  seems  to  imagine  this  to  mean 
that  whatever  was  made  was  made  ''  out  of "  the 
Logos,  as  a  sort  of  raw  material ;  and  that  as  the 
Logos  is  Spirit,  matter  could  not  be  made  "  out  of  "  it ; 
so,  whatever  might  have  been  made  ''  out  of  "  the 
Logos,  it  could  not  be  "  matter,"  at  any  rate.  She 
persistently  ignores  the  obvious  meaning  of  the  words, 
namely,  that  the  Logos  created  the  universe,  and  did 
not  need  anything  to  make  it  out  of.  "  Without  the 
Logos  "  means  in  the  Gospel,  of  course,  without  the 
Logos  as  Creator;   not  as  material  for  creation. 

We  are  sorry  to  have  to  treat  this  great  subject  with 
apparent  irreverence.  But  the  Scripture  tells  us  that 
we  must  sometimes  ''  answer  a  fool  according  to  his 
folly"  (Prov.  xxvi.  5).  It  is  true  that  it  also  warns 
us  that  we  may  not  altogether  succeed  in  this  or  in 
any  way ;  for  it  says  that  "  though  thou  shouldest 
bray  a  fool  in  the  mortar,  his  folly  would  not  be 
taken  from  him"  (Prov.  xxvii.  22).  Still,  it  may 
sometimes  be  taken  from  others  who  are  being  in- 
fected by  it ;    for  people  sometimes  do  *'  catch  "  dis- 


l62       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

eases  in  spite  of  what  our  dear  little  Eddie  may 
say. 

Nineteenth  Plank:  This  is  meant  to  deny  a  dogma 
which  no  Christian  holds,  so  far  as  we  are  aware, 
that  the  human  soul  is  a  material  substance.  But  in 
language,  it  is  all  mixed  up,  as  usual. 

Twentieth  Plank:  Much  of  the  same  kind.  Noth- 
ing new  in  it,  except  "  Father-Mother  "  and  the  word 
''  suppositional,"  which  is  a  sort  of  Eddian  fad.  Per- 
haps it  may  be  in  use  as  a  "  scientific  "  password. 

Twenty-first,  Twenty-second  and  Twenty-third 
Planks:  Here  Mrs.  Eddy's  materialistic  notions  crop 
out  again.  "  Mind  never  enters  the  finite ; "  it  is 
too  big,  of  course.  The  old  story  of  the  quart  and 
the  pint  pot.  The  ideas  of  "  reflection  "  and  "  emana- 
tion "  are  also  materialistic  in  origin,  though  they  seem 
to  her  to  solve  her  difficulty. 

Twenty-fourth  Plank :  Finally,  in  a  sort  of  despera- 
tion, she  falls  back  on  the  statement  that  ''  God  and 
man  coexist  and  are  eternal."  This,  of  course,  means 
that  man  exists  from  eternity,  that  his  existence  is 
necessary,  not  contingent  or  dependent,  and  is  the  same 
as  that  of  God.  Every  man  rises  to  the  level  of  the 
eternal  Son,  the  second  person  of  the  Blessed  Trinity. 
This  comes  of  dabbling  in  mysteries  which  none  of 
us  can  thoroughly  understand,  and  from  denying  the 
idea  of  creation. 

Twenty-fifth  Plank:  In  this,  the  idea  just  men- 
tioned, becomes  still  more  evident.  "  The  Son  (with 
a  capital  S)  must  be  in  accord  with  the  Father.'* 
To  claim  a  patent,  as  it  were,  on  this  dogma,  she  has 
to  imply,  as  she  so  often  does,  that  the  ordinary  or 
unscientific  Christian  regards  human  personality  as 
being  simply  "  material  sensation." 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       163 

Twenty-sixth  and  Twenty-seventh  Planks  :  She  tries 
to  extend  the  same  patent  to  Our  Lord's  words  that 
the  *'  pure  of  heart  can  see  God ;  "  as  if  Christians 
generally  believed  in  nothing  except  "  sensualism." 

Twenty-eighth  Plank :  This  repeats,  or  implies,  her 
old  charge,  that  the  "  unscientific  "  believe  that  man 
originates  in  matter. 

Twenty-ninth  Plank :  This  begins  with  something 
intended  for  a  pun,  rendering  the  name  ''  Adam  "  as 
"a  dam,"  or  obstruction;  and  that  it  (just  how  it 
does  not  appear)  "  suggests  the  thought  of  something 
fluid,  of  mortal  mind  in  solution."  She  confesses,  how- 
ever, that  ''  the  dissection  and  definition  of  words, 
aside  from  their  metaphysical  (probably  she  means 
etymological)  derivation  is  not  scientific." 

Next,  she  goes  on  to  state  that  ''  Jehovah  declared 
the  ground  was  accursed ;  and  from  this  ground  or 
matter  sprang  Adam."  She  does  not  seem  to  have 
noticed  that  the  words  "  cursed  is  the  earth  in  thy 
work  "  were  only  uttered  after  the  Fall ;  not  at  the 
time  when  Adam  sprung  from  it.  On  the  contrary, 
we  read  that  at  that  time,  ''  God  saw  all  the  things 
that  He  had  made,  and  they  were  very  good"  (Gen. 
i.  31).  And  yet  she  actually  quotes  this  passage  in 
her  "  Key." 

Thirtieth  Plank:  In  this,  we  see  again,  the  notion, 
which  she  imagines,  or  pretends  to  imagine,  that  we  en- 
tertain, that  sin  is  pardoned  without  being  abandoned. 

Thirty-first  Plank :  ''  Evil  cannot  be  the  product  of 
God."  We  never  heard  of  anyone  that  said  that 
it  was. 

Thirty-second  and  last  Plank:  In  this  plank,  after 
some  of  the  usual  beating  about  the  bush,  we  come 
right  down  to  business,  in  one  little  sentence,  which 


164       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

contains  the  whole  Eddian  gospel.  *'  You  conquer 
error  by  denying  its  verity."  If  this  will  only  work, 
it  is  a  most  valuable  and  important  statement.  Let 
us  see  if  it  will. 

In  the  present  very  terrible  conflict  in  Europe,  for 
instance,  Russia  holds  that  Germany  is  in  error,  or, 
as  we  may  say,  that  it  is  error  itself.  Germany, 
similarly,  holds  that  Russia  is.  All  that  Russia  has  to 
do  to  conquer  Germany  is  to  deny  the  verity  of 
Germany,  or  in  other  words,  that  Germany  has  any 
real  existence.  And  the  same  is  all  that  is  needed 
by  Germany  to  conquer  Russia.  What,  then,  is  the 
need  of  killing  so  many  people?  None  at  all,  if  both 
parties  follow  this  line.  But  one  does  not  quite  see 
how  either  is  to  conquer  anything  at  all.  Everything 
remains  in  statu  quo.  But  if  only  one  follows  this 
line  ignoring  the  other,  it  is  a  safe  bet  that  the  other 
will  whip. 

And  so,  if  we  start  "  to  get  rid  of  sin  by  Science," 
by  not  "  admitting  that  sin  can  have  pain  or  pleasure," 
when  in  point  of  fact  it  has  them,  the  pleasure  of  it 
will  allure,  while  the  pain  being  more  remote,  does  not 
counterbalance  the  pleasure.  Sin  will  win,  with  most 
people,  all  the  time.  No,  the  truth  is,  and  always  will 
be,  that  as  we  read  in  the  book  of  Job,  "  the  life  of 
man  upon  earth  is  a-  warfare,"  and  victory  cannot 
be  got  by  pretending  that  there  is  no  enemy.  This 
notion  is  simply  "  an  illusion  of  mortal  mind,"  far 
more  dangerous  than  any  of  the  real  facts  which 
Mrs.  Eddy  calls  by  that  name. 

It  is  refreshing  to  get  through,  at  last,  with  this 
"  Science  of  Being  "  chapter,  which  tries  one's  patience 
even  more  than  any  of  the  preceding  ones.  In  the 
next,  it  would  seem  that  we  might  expect  not  quite 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       165 

so  much  talk  about  "  science,"  and  perhaps  something 
a  httle  more  to  the  point ;    for  it  is  called 

CHAPTER  XL 
Some  Objections  Answered. 

We  are,  however,  doomed  to  disappointment. 
"  Science  "  sticks  up  its  head,  even  more  prominently 
than  before.  After  a  short  introductory  paragraph, 
we  find  the  following  astounding  statement : 

"  In  Christian  Science,  mere  opinion  is  valueless. 
Proof  is  essential  to  a  due  estimate  of  this  subject." 

We  had  an  idea  that  to  prove  anything  one  had  to 
start  with  some  premises  admitted  by  the  party  to 
whom  the  proof  was  to  be  presented,  and  to  proceed 
by  logically  deducing  a  conclusion  from  them.  But 
Mrs.  Eddy's  idea  is  different.  She  proves  her  con- 
clusions by  simply  stating  them.  This  is  just  the 
reason  why  they  are  not  scientific  at  all,  as  noted 
in  our  preface.  The  only  way  in  which  they  can  be 
made  to  appear  so,  is  by  taking  as  granted  by  her 
opponent  something  which  he  had  no  idea  of  holding, 
or,  in  other  words,  by  setting  up  a  ''  straw  man  "  to 
knock  him  down.  She  begins  with  remarking  that 
"  sneers  at  the  application  of  the  word  Science  to 
Christianity  cannot  prevent  that  from  being  scientific 
which  is  based  on  divine  principle,  demonstrated  ac- 
cording to  a  divine  given  rule,  and  subjected  to 
proof." 

Now,  in  the  first  place,  it  is  possible,  of  course, 
that  there  may  be  someone  who  sneers  in  the  way  that 
she  alleges.  But  we  have  never  happened  to  meet 
any  such.  If  she  had  spoken  of  "  sneers  "  at  the  appli- 
cation of  the  word  "  Science  "  to  her  so-called  "  Chris- 


1 66       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

tian  Science,"  some  such  persons  might  be  found. 
But  she  would  make  it  appear  that  there  are  persons 
who  ''sneer"  at  the  notion  that  Christianity  in  any 
form  can  be  considered  as  scientific. 

This  "  straw-man,"  however,  is  withdrawn  right 
away,  and  another  is  substituted  for  him.  This  one 
asserts,  or  impHes  at  any  rate,  that  there  are  some 
people  who  indulge  in  "  unqualified  condemnations  of 
scientific  Mind-healing."  By  the  big  M,  we  judge 
that  she  means  that  these  people  condemn  the  idea 
that  Mind  (or  according  to  her  notation,  God)  can 
heal  anyone  of  anything,  or  at  any  rate  in  any  "  scien- 
tific "  way. 

In  point  of  fact,  however,  there  are  not,  so  far  as  we 
are  aware,  any  Christians,  or  even  any  who  believe 
in  God  at  all,  who  do  not  believe  that  God  can  heal 
anyone  of  any  disease,  whether  bodily  or  mental ;  and  of 
course  we  all  believe  that  He  can  do  so,  if  He  chooses, 
without  the  use  of  any  "  drugs,"  or  any  other  "  second 
or  intermediate  causes."  He,  of  course,  can  also  do 
it,  if  He  so  wills,  even  if  those  who  are  to  be  healed 
hold  what  Mrs.  Eddy  calls  "  scientific  "  notions.  Be- 
ing a  living  and  personal  God,  He  does  not  do  it  by 
holding  her  notion  that  He  is  only  a  vague  and  im- 
personal Mind,  "  filling  all  space,"  for  He  cannot  hold 
what  is  not  true.  But  He  is  not  bound  to  refuse  to 
do  it  because  those  who  are  to  be  healed  have  been 
deluded  by  such  ideas.  He  knows  that  we  are  only 
weak  and  ignorant  creatures,  liable  to  even  the  wildest 
errors,  but  does  not  necessarily  withhold  His  mercy 
to  us  on  that  account.  "  He  maketh  His  sun  to  rise 
upon  the  good  and  bad,  and  raineth  upon  the  just  and 
the  unjust."  He  may  reward,  at  any  rate,  with  temporal 
blessings,  and  dispose  for  eternal  ones,  those  who  be- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       167 

lieve,  even  in  an  imperfect  and  erroneous  way,  in 
Him,  as,  for  instance,  is  recorded  by  St.  Mark  vii. 
25-29.  So  nothing  prevents  Him  from  healing  the 
sick  or  the  sinner,  even  in  what  perhaps  Mrs.  Eddy 
would  call  a  ''  scientific  "  way. 

It  is  true  that  by  any  such  display  of  His  power 
or  mercy  He  will  not  give  any  formal  approval  of 
false  doctrines,  as  opposed  to  true  ones ;  but  He  may 
reward  those  who  seek  Him  ignorantly,  if  they  are 
not  to  blame  for  their  ignorance.  Or  to  corne  down 
to  the  actual  case  in  hand ;  a  student  of  "  Christian 
Science "  may  obtain  a  cure  of  some  disease  from 
Him,  when  a  mere  materialist,  not  believing  in  Him 
at  all,  but  simply  and  solely  in  "  drugs,"  would  not. 
But  that  does  not  prove  that  "  Christian  Science  "  is 
an  improvement  on  real  Christianity. 

But  Mrs.  Eddy  falls  into  her  usual  misstatements 
in  saying  that  ''  he  that  decries  this  Science  does  it 
presumptuously,  in  the  face  of  Bible  history  and  in 
defiance  of  the  direct  command  of  Jesus."  She  would 
make  it  appear  that  he  that  decries  this  "  Science  " 
decries  any  power  in  God  to  heal  the  sick ;  as  if 
one  who  decries  this  "  Science "  must  decry  Chris- 
tianity altogether. 

She  proceeds  in  the  next  paragraph  to  "  let  the 
cat  out  of  the  bag,"  as  it  were  more  visibly.  "  If 
Christianity  is  not  scientific,"  she  says,  "  and  Science 
is  not  of  God,  then  there  is  no  invariable  law,  and 
truth  becomes  an  accident." 

"  The  cat,"  thus  let  out,  is  now  seen  quite  distinctly. 
It  simply  is  that  "  Christian  Science  "  regards  God, 
or  Mind,  as  not  having  any  will  of  His  own,  but  ag 
working  in  much  the  same  way  as  materialists  believe 
matter  does,  by  an  absolutely  ''  invariable  law ;  "    and 


1 68       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

moreover  holds  that  the  same  results  will  always  fol- 
low  when   the  conditions   are  the   same. 

Mrs.  Eddy  really  seems  to  regard  "  Mind "  as  a 
sort  of  foree  of  which  we  have  complete  control.  We 
have  only  to  put  ourselves  in  "  harmony "  with  it, 
and  it  can  be  turned  on  to  suit  our  needs,  or  even  our 
mere  wishes,  just  as  easily  as  one  turns  on  the  steam 
in  an  engine.  She  seems  to  have  had  a  suspicion, 
just  about  here,  that  she  was  making  her  "  Christian 
Science  "  a  little  too  "  scientific,"  and  that  some  dust 
must  be  raised  to  hide  the  issue.     So  she  says: 

''  Christian  Science  aw^akens  the  sinner,  reclaims  the 
infidel,  and  raises  from  the  couch  of  pain  the  help- 
less invalid."  But  the  question  which  one  naturally 
asks  is,  "does  it  do  these  things  all  the  time?  Does 
not  truth,  on  its  principles,  become  an  **  accident," 
as  she  says  it  will,  if  not  scientific?  ''Sometimes  it 
works,  and  sometimes  it  doesn't." 

The  facts  which  she  alleges,  can  be  accounted  for 
just  as  well,  and  indeed  much  better,  by  the  usual 
Christian  teaching  on  this  subject.  The  ordinary,  or 
normal,  Christian  believes  in  ''  Mind,"  that  is  to  say, 
in  God,  just  as  firmly  as  she  or  any  of  her  "  students," 
and  much  more  so.  We  believe  "  our  Master's " 
words,  whe'n  it  is  a  question  about  ''  healing  the  sick  " 
(which  she  takes  as  the  whole  Gospel)  just  as  thor- 
oughly as  she  does  or  can.  If  we  did  not,  why 
should  we  pray,  as  we  constantly  do,  for  the  sick? 
And  many  of  us  take  the  words  of  the  Apostle  St. 
James  very  seriously  and  practically,  when  he  says : 

"  Is  any  man  sick  among  you  ?  Let  him  bring  in 
the  priests  of  the  church,  and  let  them  pray  over 
him,  anointing  him  with  oil  in  the  name  of  the  Lord. 
And  the  prayer  of  faith  shall  save  the  sick  man;  and 


The  Truth  Aboiil*  Christian  Science       169 

the  Lord  shall  raised  him  up ;  and  if  he  b©  in  sins, 
they  shall  be  forgiven  him." 

We  think  that  this,  which  the  Apostle  recommends, 
is  better  than  to  sit  by  the  sick  man  and  put  ourselves 
and  him,  as  far  as  possible,  in  harmony  with  "  Mind." 
And  that  it  is  still  more  of  an  improvement  on  any 
sort  of  "  absent  treatment."  But  we  do  not  believe 
that  it  is  going  to  work  every  time.  We  do  not  be- 
lieve that  even  in  the  matter  of  sin  (a  far  more  im- 
portant one  than  that  of  bodily  illness)  it  is  going  to 
work  automatically,  or  according  to  any  "  invariable 
law."  We  do  not  pretend  that  it  is  that  sort  of  "  Chris- 
tian Science."  But  we  know,  as  a  matter  of  con- 
stant (and  indeed  daily)  experience,  that  it  does  work, 
when  God  so  wills ;  and  we  are  sure  that  God  has 
willed  that  we  should  use  this  means  which  He  Him- 
self has  appointed. 

If  it  were  to  work  every  time,  no  Christian  would 
ever  die.  That  it  does  not,  is  no  fatal  objection  to 
our  belief ;  all  we  are  looking  for  is  a  prolongation 
of  life,  and  (what  is  more  important)  the  forgiveness 
of  sin.  But  the  invariable  "  Science  "  of  Mrs.  Eddy 
fails  and  disproves  itself  when  it  doesn't  work.  So 
it  seems  to  us  "  unscientific  "  people,  that  our  method 
is  more  of  a  success  than  hers. 

We  may  notice,  just  by  the  way,  a  statement  by 
Mrs.  Eddy  (though  not  immediately  touching  our 
present  subject)  that  *'  Paul  was  not  one  of  Jesus' 
students."  Strangely,  however,,  we  find  that  ''  Paul  " 
thought  that  he  was  such.  He  says  (Gal.  i.  11-12): 
"  I  give  you  to  understand,  brethren,  that  the  Gospel 
that  was  preached  by  me  was  not  according  to  man. 
For  neither  did  I  receive  it  of  man,  nor  did  I  learn 
it;   but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ."     And  this 


lyo       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

passage  is,  of  course,  substantially  the  same  in  Mrs. 
Eddy's  own  Bible.  But,  as  we  remarked  a  little  while 
ago,  Mrs.  Eddy  was  not  very  familiar  with  the 
Bible.  Science  and  Health  was  the  book  for  her. 
Even  in  that,  she  does  not  seem  to  know,  in  some 
places,  what  she  wrote  in  others. 

Right  after  this  she  says  that  ''  whoever  is  the  first 
moekly  and  conscientiously  to  press  along  the  line  of 
gospel-healing  is  often  accounted  a  heretic."  Not,  so 
far  a?  we  know,  if  he  presses  along  the  line  of  gospel- 
healing  as  laid  down  in  the  Scriptures.  If  he  presses 
too  far  along  the  line  of  ''  Mind-healing"  (a  term  not 
found  in  the  Scriptures),  perhaps  he  might  be. 

Another  curious  statement  is  made  by  her  on  the 
next  page;  she  alleges  that  it  is  objected  to  Christian 
Science  that  ''  it  claims  God  as  the  only  absolute 
Life  and  Soul,  and  man  is  His  idea — that  is.  His 
image." 

We  do  not  know  who  makes  this  objection.  But 
certainly  it  cannot  be  a  Christian  of  any  kind.  For 
all  Christians  undoubtedly  recognize  God  as  the  only 
absolute  (we  suppose  that  she  means  the  only  self- 
existent  and  independent)  Life  and  Soul,  and  that 
man  was  as  the  Bible  tells  us,  "  made  to  His  image 
and  likeness."  They  do  not  say,  however,  that  man 
is  simply  *'  His  idea,"  if  she  means  ''  His  only  idea." 
And  the  great  majority  of  Christians  hold  that  the 
likeness  of  man  to  God  was  very  much  injured  by  the 
Fall  of  Adam;  which,  of  course,  Mrs.  Eddy  always 
ignores. 

In  ending  this  paragraph,  she  asks  (apparently  as 
a  sort  of  clincher)  ''  is  it  sacrilegious  to  assume  that 
God's  likeness  is  not  found  in  matter,  sin,  sickness, 
or  death?"     She  lumps  all  these  four  together,  of 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       lyi 

course.  As  to  "  matter,  of  course,  she  seems  to  for- 
get that  after  saying,  ''  let  us  make  man  to  our  image 
and  Hkeness."  God,  as  the  sacred  writer  tells  us, 
"formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground"  (as  her 
version  has  it).  Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  as  we  see  in 
her  Key  to  the  Scriptures,  does  not  stick  at  a  little 
thing  like  that.  In  that  "  Key,"  she  asks,  ''  is  this  ad- 
dition to  His  creation  real  or  unreal?"  (We  hardly 
see  how  it  could  be  an  "  addition,"  being  made  before 
man  was.) 

Then  she  goes  on,  "  is  it  the  truth,  or  a  lie  con- 
cerning man  and  God?  It  must  he  a  lie,  for  God 
presently  curses  the  ground."  Again  she  forgets  that 
this  was  not  until  after  the  Fall,  and  that  then  it  was 
on  Adam's  disobedience.  ''  Cursed  is  the  ground  for 
thy  sake "  are  the  words  in  her  own  version. 

To  speak  plainly,  the  real  reason  why  she  has  to 
make  it  a  lie,  is  because  it  does  not  fit  in  with  her 
own  wild  theories.  These  words,  and  indeed  any- 
thing in  Scripture  or  anywhere,  must  be  a  lie,  if  not 
in  "harmony  with  Science  and  Health."  She  shows 
this  plainly  in  her  introduction  to  her  "  Key."  It  is 
not  a  key  to  a  better  understanding  of  an  inspired 
book,  the  Word  of  God,  but  just  a  key  to  i^nlock, 
and  get  rid  of,  the  absurd  idea  that  it  is  God's  Word. 
No  book  is  inspired,  except  Science  and  Health.  Even 
on  that,  no  human  commentaries  are  allowed.  You 
have  just  got  to  read  it,  and  swallow  it  right  down. 
vShe  actually  quotes  words  from  the  Apocalypse  in 
the  outset  of  her  "  Key."  "  The  angel,"  we  there  read, 
said  to  St.  John,  "  take  the  book  and  eat  it  up." 
Mrs.  Eddy  actually  has  the  audacity  to  apply  these 
words  to  her  own  absurd  book.  She  paraphrases  them 
as  follows: 


172        The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science 

"  Then  will  a  voice  from  harmony  cry :   Go  and  take 

the  little  book Take  it  and  eat  it  up ;  and  it  shall 

make  thy  belly  bitter,  but  it  shall  be  in  thy  mouth 
sweet  as  honey.  Mortals  obey  the  heavenly  evangel. 
Take  divine  Science.  Read  this  book  from  beginning 
to  end.  Study  it,  ponder  it."  But  before  reading  it, 
pay  five  dollars  for  it.  That  is  more  important  than 
even  to  read  it. 

She  does  not  begin  to  apply  any  "  key "  to  the 
Apocalypse,  till  she  can  get  it  to  say  something  which 
she  can  interpret  as  a  favorable  notice  of  her  book. 
That  is  all  that  is  good  for  anything  in  what  St.  John, 
or  anyone  else,  can  say. 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  how  pride  and  impiety  can 
go  much  farther  than  this.  It  will  not,  perhaps,  open 
the  eyes  of  those  who  have  fully  surrendered  to  her 
really  devilish  delusions.  But  it  may  be  the  means 
of  saving  others  from  them  who  have  not  yet  com- 
pletely become  their  victims.  We  hope  that  such 
will  be  warned  while  there  is  yet  time.  One  would 
think  that  its  silliness  and  ignorance  would  be  enough 
to  scare  readers  away;  but  evidently  they  have  not 
been  so. 

To  resume  where  we  left  off,  however,  we  cheer- 
fully concede  that  God's  likeness  is  not  found  in 
*'  sin,  sickness  and  death."  But  it  does  not  follow 
from  this  that  man  in  his  fallen  state,  is  not  subject 
to  these. 

In  spite  of  the  spiritual  danger  of  the  Eddian  doc- 
trine, and  its  impiety,  which  we  have  to  show  up, 
sometimes,  as  just  now,  we  have  to  be  amused  now 
and  then,  by  its  comicality,  as  we  go  along.  As,  for 
instance,  when  she  says,  that  "  when  the  omnipotence 
of  God  is  preached  and  His  absoluteness  is  set  forth, 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        173 

Christian  sermons  will  heal  the  sick."  We  had  an 
impression  that  sermons  were  not  allowed  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  as  they  might  introduce  a  human  element  into 
her  ineffable  revelations.  But  here  she  seems  to 
throw  out  a  hint,  as  it  were,  of  suitable  subjects  for 
sermons,  and  says,  as  it  would  seem,  that  if  these 
subjects  were  strictly  adhered  to,  sick  people  might 
be  cured  by  them,  even  right  in  church.  That  would 
surely  be  a  great  improvement  over  the  soporific  effect 
with  which  we  are  more  familiar.  But  the  subjects 
she  wants  to  have  "  set  forth "  are  in  fact  often 
treated  of. 

Another  funny  little  sentence :  "  The  thought,"  she 
says,  "  of  human,  material  nothingness,  which  Science 
inculcates,  enrages  the  carnal  mind."  We  should 
think  that  the  ''  carnal  mind  "  would  be  more  likely 
to  laugh  at  such  an  absurd  thought  than  to  get  "  en- 
raged "  at  it. 

Would  anyone  believe  that  even  Mrs.  Eddy  could 
write  such  a  sentence  at  this?  "  Do  you  feel  the  pain 
of  tooth-pulling,"  she  asks,  "  when  you  believe  that 
nitrous-oxide  gas  has  made  you  unconscious?"  Try 
some  other  kind  of  gas  (Mrs.  Eddy's,  for  instance), 
and  no  matter  how  much  you  believe  that  it  has  this 
property,  you  will  feel  the  pain  as  much  as  ever,  and 
also  the  pain  of  listening  to  her  nonsense. 

One  absolute  false  statement  of  fact,  which  she 
makes  in  this  chapter,  cannot  be  passed  by  in  silence. 
It  is  that  "  the  Christian  opponents  of  Christian 
Science  neither  give  nor  offer  any  proofs  that  their 
Master's  religion  can  heal  the  sick."  She  may,  per- 
haps, refuse  to  listen  to  any  proofs  which  we  give 
and  offer;  but  to  say  that  they  are  not  given  and  of- 
fered, and  in  immense  numbers,  is  simply  a  lie,  only 


174       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

excusable,   if  at  all,   by  the   unfathomable   ignorance 
which  she  shows  so  frequently. 

She  repeats  it  on  the  very  next  page.  ''  Popular 
religion,"  she  says,  *'  declines  to  admit  that  Christ's 
religion  has  exercised  any  systematic  healing  power 
since  the  first  century."  It  seems  to  us  that  the  re- 
ligion of  the  great  majority  of  Christians  may  have 
some  slight  claim  to  be  considered  ''  popular."  But 
she  seems  (or  pretends)  never  to  have  heard  of  any 
Christian  religion  except  that  of  the  ''  orthodox  Con- 
gregational Church,"  of  which,  she  tells  us,  that  she 
"  became  a  member  in  early  years."  The  point,  it 
should  be  observed,  is  not  whether  Christ's  religion 
has  actually  exercised  any  such  "  healing  power,"  but 
whether  such  a  claim  is  popularly  made  for  it. 

This  chapter  is  entitled  "  Some  Objections  An- 
swered." But  we  practically  do  not  find  that  Mrs. 
Eddy  even  states  any  objections  which  she  is  supposed 
to  be  answering.  Just  a  little  snip  here  and  there, 
that  is  all,  answered  by  a  wilderness  of  the  same  old 
stuff  that  she  is  constantly  repeating. 

Once  more,  before  concluding  this  chapter,  she  takes 
occasion  again  to  explicitly  deny  the  dogma  of  the  Incar- 
nation and  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  and  reduces  them  both 
down  to  the  idea  that  our  Divine  Lord  was  in  no  way 
different  from  the  rest  of  us;  that  when  He  said, 
"  I  and  My  Father  are  one."  He  simply  meant  that,  as 
with  all  of  us,  "  in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have 
our  being."  And  she  again  lets  out  her  quantitative, 
or  materialist,  notion  of  infinity.  She  says  that  He 
meant  by  what  He  said,  "  one  in  quality,  not  in  quan- 
tity. The  Christian,"  she  says,  "  recognizes  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  not  God,  as  Jesus  Himself  declared,  but  is 
the  Son  of  God.     God  and  man,  Father  and  son " 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       175 

(now  with  a  small  '' s  ")  "are  in  one  being."  Thus 
flippantly  she  disposes  of  the  practically  universal  be- 
lief of  Christianity;  as  if  no  one  could  pos"sibly  be- 
lieve anything  like  that. 

We  are  not  quite  sure,  however,  whether  Mrs.  Eddy 
meant  that  "  Jesus  Himself  declared  "  that  He  was 
God,  or  that  He  was  not.  Probably,  however,  it  was 
the  latter,  as  she  says  that  the  *'  Christian  "  recognizes 
that  opinion.  It  is,  at  any  rate,  well  to  notice  this 
"  Christian  "  opinion  of  hers  once  again,  that  Chris- 
tians in  general  may  be  more  thoroughly  warned  by 
it  against  her  other  errors. 

With  this,  it  is  perhaps  allowable  to  conclude  this 
chapter,  in  which  the  theoretical  part  of  this  alleged 
"  science  "  should  logically  have  been  completed,  and 
all  the  objections  to  it  refuted.  -  Of  course  next  to 
nothing  has  been  attempted  by  the  author  in  either 
of  these  lines ;  no  clear  and  consistent  scheme  of  doc- 
trine has  been  developed,  nor  have  the  ''  objections," 
even  such  as  may  emerge  in  this  chapter  or  others 
from  the  mass  of  verbiage  which  makes  up  the  whole 
thing,  been  made  in  any  formal  way.  And  it  is  not 
binding  on  us  to  formulate  a  set  of  definite  objections 
to  a  set  of  vague  assertions,  a  great  many  of  which 
are  simply  statements  that  the  opponents  of  her 
"  science "  hold  views  which  they  are  really  never 
dreamt  of;  they  are  attacks  on  what  does  not  exist, 
or  in  other  words,  on  a  "  straw  man."  We  hope, 
however,  before  finally  concluding  our  examination  of 
this  mass  of  stuff,  to  give  some  statements  of  the 
true  Christian  and  common  sense  doctrine  which  she 
endeavors  to  combat  in  it,  and  contrast  them  with  her 
wild  errors. 

But  as  she  really  has  not  yet  got  through  with  her 


176       The  TnifJi  About  Christian  Science 

exposition  of  this  false  "science"  (in  spite  of  what 
might  appear  from  the  titles  of  her  chapters),  we 
shall  have  to  proceed  with  these  chapters  in  the  order 
in  which  they  are  given.  Even  in  the  next  one,  they 
will  be  repeated.     It  is  called 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Christian  Science  Practice. 

This  chapter  certainly  begins  in  rather  a  surprising 
way.  One  would  have  expected  to  find,  at  the  out- 
set, and  indeed  all  through,  directions  as  to  the  proper 
rules  to  be  observed  in  working  up  people  who 
imagined  themselves  to  be  sick  into  a  firm  convic- 
tion that  there  was  really  nothing  the  matter  with 
them.  That  is  all  that  there  is  in  the  whole  system; 
so  why  not  get  right  to  work  on  it  at  once?  But  no, 
instead  of  this,  we  find  the  Gospel  account  of  St.  Mary 
Magdalen  coming  into  the  house  of  the  Pharisee  where 
Jesus. was  sitting  at  meat.  We  all  know  this  beauti- 
ful and  true  story  so  well  that  there  is  no  need  to 
give  it  in  full.  But  what  has  it  to  do  with  Christian 
Science,  or  with  its  practice? 

The  instruction  which  Mrs.  Eddy  apparently  wishes 
to  give  by  it  to  "practitioners"  (as  we  believe  they  are 
called),  is  that  they  must  cultivate  a  spirit  of  sym- 
pathy, like  that  of  Jesus  for  the  sinner ;  sympathy,  we 
suppose,  for  their  errors  in  supposing  that  there  is 
and  reality  in  matter,  or  anything  except  "  Mind  "  in 
the  world. 

It  seems  to  be  her  idea  that  the  ordinary  medical 
"practitioner"  (if  we  may  be  allowed  to  use  this 
sacred  word)  is  brutal  and  scornful,  like  the  Pharisee, 
in  his   treatment   of   the   sick   that   he   regards   it   as 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       177 

being  their  own  fault  that  they  are  sick.  And  that 
so  he  thinks  the  proper  way  to  proceed  is  to  punish 
them  for  this  fault  -  by  stuffing  some  horrid  and 
nauseous  ''  drugs  "  down  their  throats,  or  perhaps  by 
cutting  them  up  with  his  instruments  of  torture ;  if 
the  case  seems  grave  enough  to  call  for  it ;  or,  at  any 
rate,,  that  doctors,  and  even  nurses,  in  their  ordinary 
work,  have  no  sympathy  for  the  sick,  and  that  ''  Scien- 
tists "  must  show  that  they  have  it. 

We  must  allow  that  doctors,  and  nurses  also,  are  in 
fact,  and  in  a  way,  hardened  to  the  sufferings  of  their 
patients  by  seeing  so  much  of  them,  and,  moreover, 
that  they  do  not  think  it  their  proper  place  to  offer 
spiritual  consolation,  but  are  inclined  to  think  that  the 
clergyman  can  do  that  work  better,  and  that  they  can 
do  their  own  work  more  effectually  by  confining  their 
attention  to  it.  In  spite  of  this  drawback,  however, 
we  think  that  general  experience  shows  that  doctors 
and  professional  nurses,  are  as  a  rule  quite  nice  peo- 
ple, and  that  their  visits,  as  far  as  their  personal  be- 
havior is  concerned,  are  enjoyed  and  looked  forward 
to  by  the  patients  whom  they  may  have  in  charge; 
furthermore,  that  they  are  not  at  all  likely  to  indulge  in 
"  quoting  theories,  stereotyped,  borrowed  speeches,  and 
the  doling  of  arguments."  Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to  com- 
plain that  some  "  science "  practitioners  are  apt  to 
err  in  this  way,  and  that  they  need  to  be  warned 
against  it.  And  though  having  no  personal  experience 
in  the  matter,  we  should  not  be  surprised  if  this  were 
the  case. 

We  have  found  that,  as  a  fact,  ''  Scientists  "  are 
somewhat  in  the  habit  of  ''gushing"  about  their 
theories,  which  may  be  explained  by  there  being  so 
little  except  "  gush  "  in  them.    But  the  difficulty  about 


178       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

the  regular  "  unscientific  "  physician  seems  to  be  that 
he  says  so  Httle  about  his  theories  to  his  patient.  He 
seems  to  think  that  he  must  only  talk  to  other  doc- 
tors about  them. 

For  the  "  metaphysician,"  however,  Mrs.  Eddy  gives 
the  following  warning.  (It  is  really  funny,  by  the 
way,  that  she  really  seems  to  have  no  idea  at  all  what 
the  word  actually  means.)  *'  In  order  to  cure  his 
patient,"  she  says,  "  the  metaphysician  must  first  cast 
moral  evils  out  of  himself,  and  thus  obtain  the 
spiritual  fredom  which  will  enable  him  to  cast  phy- 
sical evils  out  of  his  patient."  (We  had  an  idea,  by 
the  way,  that  there  really  were  no  ''  physical  evils  " 
in  his  patient  to  cast  out.  But  we  may  let  that  pass. 
This  sort  of  thing  occurs  so  often.)  But  we  don't 
quite  understand  what  she  means  by  "  moral  evils." 
If  she  mxcans  sinful  habits  and  desires,  we  all  ac- 
knowledge, of  course,  that  this  is  very  good  advice  for 
''  the  metaphysician,"  as  it  is  for  everyone  else.  It  is 
not,  however,  at  all  new.  But  in  "  scientific " 
language,  we  thought  that  all  moral  evils  were  just 
"  errors  of  mortal  mind."  And  anyone  enough  ad- 
vanced to  be  a  "  practitioner,"  ought  to  have  got  rid 
of  these,  one  would  think,  long  ago. 

She  goes  on,  however,  to  explain.  "  The  physician," 
she  says  (of  course,  if  he  is  a  "scientist"  he  is  a 
metaphysician,  so  it  is  all  the  same),  *'  must  also  watch, 
lest  he  be  overcome  by  a  sense  of  the  odiousness  of 
sin  and  by  the  unveiling  of  sin  in  his  own  thoughts." 

This  seems  rather  strange,  with  good  respectable 
patients.  But  what  Mrs.  Eddy  means  by  "  sin  "  is 
immediately  made  plain.  It  is  not  anything  in  will 
or  act,  but  only  in  belief.  "  The  sick,"  she  tells 
us,  "  are  terrified  by  their  sick  beliefs,"  that  is  to  say 


The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science       179 

the  beliefs  that  they  are  really  sick.  So  she  says, 
''  sinners  should  be  affrighted  by  their  sinful  beliefs," 
these  are,  probably,  that  there  is  any  difference  be- 
tween them  and  "  Mind."  But  ''  the  Christian  Scien- 
tist," she  assures  us,  '*  will  be  calm  in  the  presence  of 
both  sin  and  disease,  knowing,  as  he  does,  that  Life  is 
God,  and  God  is  All."  As  he  knows  this,  he  has  no 
beliefs  which  are  sick  or  sinful ;  and  can  get  such 
belief's  right  out  of  his  patient,  even  if  he  says  noth- 
ing about  them.  They  will  just  "  catch  "  them  from 
him.  His  presence,  or  even  his  absence,  if  it  is  a 
case  of  "  absent  treatment,"  will  be  quite  enough. 

We  have  always  rather  wondered  how  this  works 
in  the  case  of  "  Christian  Science  "  dentists.  But  per- 
haps there  are  not  many.  Or  rather,  we  understand 
that  there  are  some,  but  they  do  not  use  it  in  their 
practice ;  or,  in  other  words,  that  they  are  not  "  prac- 
titioners," and  evidently  could  not  be  advanced  to  that 
grade.  Of  course,  if  they  were  they  would  only  have 
to  sit  by  the  side  of  the  patient's  chair  and  trium- 
phantly see  the  illusion  of  there  being  any  aching  tooth 
disappear;  perhaps,  a  little  cocaine  might  be  given, 
just  to  help  the  good  work  along.  Of  course  it  would 
be  absurd  to  try  to  pull  out  a  thing  which  does  not 
exist.  As  to  there  really  being  any  tooth,  aching  or 
otherwise,  both  dentist  and  patient  would  of  course 
"  turn  from  the  lie  of  false  belief  and  gather  the  facts 
of  being  from  the  divine  Mind." 

Christians  also  prefer  to  get  the  facts  of  being  from 
the  divine  Mind,  but  not  by  throwing  away  the  means 
whick  He  has  provided  for  us  to  enable  us  to  do  so. 

But  we  must  proceed  with  this  foolish  book.  A 
little  farther  on,  our  attention  is  arrested  by  this  re- 
markable statement :    "  that  Life  is  not  contingent  on 


i8o       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

bodily  conditions  is  proved,  when  we  learn  that  life 
and  man  survive  the  body."  Christians  learn  this 
in  childhood,  as  soon  as  they  are  able  to  learn  or  un- 
derstand anything,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  seems  not  to  have 
been  rightly  instructed  in  her  early  years.  Yet  we 
thought  that  the  "  orthodox  Congregational  Church  " 
believed  in  a  life  after  death.  But  they,  and  other 
reasonable  people,  do  not  prove  from  it  that  life  is  not 
contingent  on  bodily  conditions ;  for  they  know  that 
in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word  life,  it  means  the 
union  of  soul  and  body,  and  that  the  latter  will  wear 
out,  and  become  unfit  for  this  union,  whereas  the 
former  will  not;  and  that  therefore  life,  in  this  normal 
sense  of  the  word,  is  contingent  on  bodily  conditions, 
as  experience  constantly  proves;  and  Mrs.  Eddy 
"  proved "  that  she  was  no  exception  to  the  rule. 
But  she  tried  in  this  sentence  to  make  a  sort  of  haze 
or  confusion  by  spelling  ''  life  "  in  the  first  part  of  it 
with  a  big  L.  If  asked  about  this,  she  could  say  that 
that  Life  (with  a  big  L)  means  the  Divine  Life. 
Of  course  we  all  admit  that  this  is  not  contingent ; 
but  we  do  not  admit  that  human  life  and  Divine  Life 
are  identical.  The  latter  is  necessary;  the  former  is 
created  by  it,  and  is  contingent. 

Of  course  it  is  understood  that  in  this  chapter  she 
is  supposed  to  be  talking  to  people  who  have,  par- 
tially at  any  rate,  swallowed  her  nonsense ;  but  to  re- 
peat it  in  this  chapter,  which  is  supposed  to  be  con- 
cerned with  practice,  rather  than  theory,  is  hardly 
keeping  to  the  point.  It  looks  as  if  she  were  afraid 
that  when  going  into  practice,  the  theory  might  slip 
away  from  them. 

A  little  later,  she  gives  an  example,  as  she  does  so 
often,  of  her  unfamiliarity  with  Scripture.    Really,  of 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       i8i 

course,  she  has  no  need  of  it,  Science  and  Health 
being  the  only  thoroughly  inspired  book.  But  she  ven- 
tures to  make  a  guess  that  "  Jesus  never  asked  if 
disease  were  acute  or  chronic."  She  does  not  seem  to 
have  read  the  ninth  chapter  of  St.  Mark's  Gospel. 
In  verse  twenty,  we  find  these  words,  "  How  long  time 
is  it  since  this  has  happened  to  him?  But  he  (the 
father)  said:  From  his  infancy."  Not  that  it  made 
any  real  difference  to  Our  Lord  how  long  a  disease 
had  lasted.  But  poor  :\Irs.  Eddy  thought  that  she 
might  score  a  point  somehow,  and  so  forgot  to  ''  look 
before  she  leaped." 

She  continues  immediately,  that  "  He "  (Jesus) 
"never  recommended  attention  to  laws  of  health,  never 
gave  drugs,  never  prayed  to  know  if  God  were  willing 
that  a  man  should  live."  This  certainly  sounds  strange 
to  Christians,  who  know  that  Our  Lord  really  was 
God,  and  that  if  He  chose  to  exercise  His  Divine 
Power,  needed  no  "  laws  of  health  "  or  "  drugs."  To 
"  Scientists,"  however,  it  is  simply  an  exhortation  to 
remember  that  they  really  are  God,  just  as  well  as 
Jesus  was,  and  have  the  stream  of  Divine  power  to 
turn  on  whenever  they  may  wish  to  do  so.  It  would 
be  quite  absurd  for  a  "  Scientist "  to  pray ;  they  don't 
need  to  pray,  even  to  Mrs.  Eddy. 

But  we  find  in  this  very  chapter  of  St.  Mark  which 
has  just  been  quoted,  that  in  the  case  there  narrated, 
which  the  ''  students  "  of  the  "  Christian  Science  "  of 
Jesus  had  failed  to  cure,  and  asked  Him  the  reason 
for  their  failure,  that  He  told  them  for  their  instruc- 
tion, that  "  this  kind  can  go  out  by  nothing,  but  by 
prayer  and  fasting."  It  did  not  follow  because  He 
did  not  need  these,  that  the  "  students  "  did  not.  And 
He  Himself,  as  the  Gospels  tell  us,  gave  them  His  ex- 


1 82        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

ample  as  well  as  His  precept.  Moreover,  since  ac- 
cording to  ''  Science,"  His  chief  work  on  earth  was 
to  ''heal  the  sick"  (though  real  Christians  do  not 
think  so).  His  prayer,  even  when  He  was  praying  for 
the  whole  night  (Luke  vi.  12),  must  have  been  made 
mainly  for  that  purpose. 

Shortly  after  this  we  are  astounded  by  a  statement 
that  homoeopathy,  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  does  some- 
times cure  disease.  She  accounts  for  this  by  its  re- 
quiring more  faith  than  the  regular  or  "  allopathic  " 
system ;  but  she  says  ''  this  confirms  my  theory  that 
the  faith  in  the  drug  is  the  sole  factor  in  the  cure." 
The  really  astounding  part  is  that  she  should  talk 
about  ''  my  theory."  We  have  understood,  all  along, 
that  she  did  not  have  any  ''  theories,"  that  with  her, 
all  her  ''  science  "  had  come  by  revelation. 

But  another  "  theory  "  soon  appears.  ''  What  you 
call  matter  was  originally  error  in  solution,"  she  in- 
forms us ;  it  became  matter,  then,  we  suppose,  by  the 
solution  being  boiled  down  or  evaporated,  with  a  pre- 
cipitation of  the  error  in  the  form  of  matter.  One 
"  theory  "  about  this  ''  error  "  or  ''  elementary  mortal 
mind,"  as  she  tells  us  that  ''  error  is  called  when  in 
solution,"  is,  that  *'  its  sensations  can  reproduce  man, 
can  form  blood,  flesh,  and  bones."  We  don't  know 
whether  she  approves  of  this  theory  or  not;  but  it 
seems  as  if  her  "  science  "  was  getting  a  little  shaky 
when  she  begins  to  talk  about  "  theories."  This  one 
seems  to  be  rather  in  the  domain  of  chemistry. 

A  little  farther  on  she  begins  to  make  some  rules, 
as  it  would  seem,  which  really  may  be  intended  for 
what  the  chapter  is  supposed  to  treat  on,  that  is  to 
say,  ''  Christian  Science  Practice."  The  first  par- 
ticular  ailment   she   applies   them   to   is   intermittent 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       183 

fever,  or  what  she  calls  ''  chills  and  heat,  or  chills  and 
fever."  ''  Change  the  mental  state,"  she  says,  "  and 
the  chills  and  fever  disappear."  But  with  sensible  peo- 
ple, who  look  at  facts,  and  are  not  imaginative,  it  is 
not  so  easy  to  change  the  mental  state.  Our  family 
doctor  once  tried  that  on  the  present  writer,  when  the 
latter  w^as  suffering  in  childhood,  with  a  rather  bad 
case  of  this  complaint,  by  telling  him  that  in  really 
severe  ones  the  house  could  be  seen  to  shake  by  peo- 
ple outside.  That  was  a  little  in  the  "  scientific  "  line, 
but  of  course  it  was  fatal  to  any  thorough  science 
to  admit  that  there  were  or  could  be  any  really  severe 
cases.  It  was  rather  amusing,  and  in  a  way  en- 
couraging, to  have  him  say  that;  but  it  did  not  pro- 
duce any  effect  on  what  shaking  there  was ;  so  he 
concluded,  later  on,  to  give  a  good  strong  dose  of 
ordinary  quinine,  and  keep  on  with  it  till  the  trouble 
was  actually  cured. 

Mrs.  Eddy,  however,  goes  further  than  most  prac- 
titioners would,  probably,  venture  on  doing  with  a 
fairly  intelligent  child.  "  If  the  body  is  material,  it 
cannot,"  she  asserts  with  apparent  seriousness,  "  suffer 
with  a  fever."  Well,  of  course,  it  doesn't  suffer  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  without  a  mind  to  re- 
ceive the  sensations  which  can  be  got  from  it.  But 
just  put  in  a  thermometer  under  the  tongue,  and  if 
you  find  it  reading  one  hundred  and  four  degrees  or 
so,  you  may  very  safely  bet  that  it  has  got  a  fever, 
and  a  pretty  bad  one.  Well,  she  has  the  same 
rigmarole  in  all  other  cases  of  which  she  mentions. 
Palsy,  consumption,  and  all  other  diseases  disappear 
when  you  believe  that  you  have  not  got  them.  But 
the  difficulty  is  to  believe  that  you  have  not  got  them, 
w^hen  you  know  that  you  have. 


184        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

It  all  sounds  very  easy.  ''  The  efficient  remedy,"  we 
are  told,  *'  is  to  destroy  the  patient's  false  belief  by 
both  silently  and  audibly  arguing  the  true  facts  with 
regard  to  harmonious  being."  But  the  ordinary  com- 
mon sense  patient  would  say,  ''  I  don't  care  a  rap 
about  'harmonious  being'  just  now.  When  I  get  well 
it  might  amuse  me,  but  now  I  am  too  sick." 

What  she  says  on  the  next  page  is  really  funnier 
than  usual,  and  quite  worth  quoting.  It  is,  that  "  the 
author  never  knew  a  patient  who  did  not  recover 
when  the  belief  of  the  disease  had  gone."  Recover 
from  what?  Why^  of  course^  from  the  false  belief 
of  disease.  There  being  no  real  disease,  there  was 
nothing  else  to  recover  from.  But  at  the  time  of 
recovery  from  this  false  belief,  the  false  belief  had 
already  gone,  and  there  was  nothing  at  all  left  from 
which  to  recover.  The  author,  then,  "  never  knew  a 
patient  who  did  not  get  rid  of  the  false  belief  of  dis- 
ease when  this  false  belief  had  been  got  rid  of."  This 
was  truly  remarkable;  and  yet  she  had  never  known 
even  one  case  to  the  contrary.  If  she  had  said,  that 
she  never  knew  a  patient  who  did  not  recover  from 
a  real  disease  when  the  belief  that  it  was  real  had 
gone,  that  would  have  made  sense  at  any  rate.  But 
she  couldn't  say  that;  it  would  be  against  her  absurd 
principles,  and  ''  science  of  being."  It  is  such  a  pity 
that  she  did  not  know  a  little  bit  more  about  real 
science  before  starting  to  talk  about  it. 

On  the  same  page,  she  gives  the  following  title 
direction  to  "  practitioners :  "  "  If  your  patient  be- 
lieves in  taking  cold,  mentally  convince  him  that  mat- 
ter cannot  take  cold."  She  might  as  well  say,  ''  If 
your  patient  believes  that  the  water  in  his  pitcher 
is  frozen,  mentally  convince  him  that  matter  cannot 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        185 

freeze."  Or,  *'  If  your  patient  thinks  that  his  watch 
has  stopped,  mentally  convince  him  that  matter  cannot 
stop,  or  start,  or  do  anything  else."  But  be  sure 
that  he  is  really  patient,  or  he  might  get  impatient  at 
such  nonsense. 

To  this  stuff  she  adds  one  little  grain  of  really 
good  advice,  such  as  a  common-sense  or  real  Chris- 
tian might  give,  and  often  docs  give.  "  If  grief 
causes  suffering,  convince  the  suft'erer  that  affliction  is 
often  the  source  of  joy."  She  is  willing  to  concede 
that  grief  may  cause  suffering,  at  any  rate  in  what 
she  calls  ''  mortal  mind."  But  in  fact  (and  she 
really  knows  it)  she  might  as  well  substitute  "a 
toothache"  for  "grief."     She  continues:    "Convince 

the    sufferer that    he    should    rejoice    always    in 

ever-present  Love."  That  is  what  St.  Paul  says :  ''Re- 
joice in  the  Lord  always."  Or  again,  the  ''  Master  " 
says :  "  A  woman,  when  she  is  in  labor,  hath  sor- 
row, because  her  hour  is  come;  but  when  she  hath 
brought  forth  the  child,  she  remembers  no  more  the 
anguish,  for  joy  that  a  man  is  born  into  the  world." 

It  is  refreshing  to  find  her  giving  this  little  bit  of 
real  Christianity,  in  the  midst  of  a  wilderness  of 
antichristian  delusion.  But  it  would  not  do  to  keep 
it  up  for  too  long;  for  the  bait  which  she  wants  to 
hang  out,  to  get  people  to  take  her  "  Science,"  is 
that  if  they  do,  they  will  have  no  anguish  of  any 
kind  to  feel  or  to  remember.  To  get  rid  of  all  suf- 
fering in  this  world  is  the  whole  gospel  of  her  anti- 
christian science. 

One  other  little  absurdity  in  it  may  be  noticed,  on 
this  same  page.  ''The  cause  of  all  disease"  {all 
disease,  mind  you)  "  is  mental,  even  a  mortal  fear,  a 
helpless,   mistaken   belief   or  fixed  conviction   of  the 


1 86       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

necessity  and  power  of  ill  health."  Imagine,  if  you 
please,  a  bahy  with  a  stonfachache,  laboring  under  a 
"  helpless,  mistaken  belief  or  fixed  conviction  of  the 
necessity  and  power  of  ill  health !  "  But,  of  course, 
this  exalted  science  is  not  intended  for  babies.  Still, 
it  is  strange  that  they  should  have  to  suffer  for  the 
want  of  it.  Probably  the  ''  practitioner  "  just  lets  them 
suft'er. 

Another  thing  that  we  find  a  little  farther  on,  is  that 
*'  if  disease  can  attack  and  control  the  body  without 
the  consent  of  mortals,  sin  can  do  the  same."  In  fact, 
sin  is  not  a  matter  of  the  body,  but  of  the  soul.  It 
does  not  and  cannot  control  anything  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  soul.  Mrs.  Eddy,  like  all  of  us,  knows 
very  well  that  it  does  not  follow  that  because  disease 
can  control  the  body  without  the  consent  of  mortals, 
sin  can  do  the  same. 

But  this  chapter,  though  supposed  to  be  practical,  is 
so  full  of  theoretical  absurdities  that  it  would  be 
"  practically  "  impossible  to  notice  them  all.  She  says : 
"  The  quickened  pulse,  coated  tongue,  febrile  heat, 
dry  skin,  pain  in  the  "head  and  limbs,  are  pictures 
drawn  on  the  body  by  a  mortal  mind."  That  must 
hold  good  for  babies  as  well  as  for  grown  people. 
Again :  "  We  cannot  in  reality  suffer  from  breaking 
anything  except  a  moral  or  spiritual  law."  How  if  one 
should  throw  a  match  into  a  barrel  of  gunpowder, 
supposing  it  to  be  charcoal  for  the  teeth?  Well,  of 
course,  according  to  Eddian  law,  one  ought  not  to  use 
anything  for  the  teeth.  But  one  might  have  intended 
to  burn  it  up,  just  to  prevent  anyone  else  from  using  it. 

One  other  little  thing  may  be  quoted,  because  it  is 
so  funny :  "  If  half  the  attention  given  to  hygiene," 
she    says,    *'  were   given    to    the    study    of    Christian 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       187 

Science,  and  to  the  spiritualization  of  thought,  this 
alone  would  usher  in  the  millennium.  But  why  re- 
strict this  to  "half"  the  attention?  Why  give  any 
attention  to  hygiene  at  all?  She  tells  us  that  con- 
stant "  bathing  and  rubbing  to  alter  the  secretions  or 
to  remove  unhealthy  exhalations  from  the  cuticle  re- 
ceive a  useful  rebuke  from  Jesus'  precept :  '*  Take  no 
thought  for  the  body."  A  real  Christian  Scientist, 
it  would  seem,  ought  never  to  bathe,  and  under  no 
circumstances  to  use  a  towel.  But  the  whole  business 
is  so  reeking  with  absurdities  that  it  seems  incredible 
that  any  person  with  even  a  grain  of  sense  ould  take 
any  stock  in  it. 

Here,  however,  is  an  interesting  passage :  "  Because 
mortal  mind  is  kept  active,  must  it  pay  the  penalty 
of  a  softened  brain?  Who  dares  to  say  that  actual 
mind  can  be  overworked?  When  we  reach  our  limits 
of  mental  endurance,  we  conclude  that  intellectual 
labor  has  been  carried  sufficiently  far ;  but  when 
we  realize  that  immortal  Mind  is  ever  active,  and  that 
spiritual  energies  can  neither  wear  out  nor  can  so- 
called  material  law  trespass  on  God-given  powers  and 
resources,  we  are  able  to  rest  in  Truth,  refreshed  by 
the  assurances  of  immortality,  opposed  to  mortality." 
This  is  encouraging,  though  we  can't  as  yet  quite  ac- 
cept it.  For  when  we  reach  our  limits  of  mental  en- 
durance in  reading  Mrs.  Eddy's  nonsense,  we  do  con- 
clude that  for  that  day  it  has  been  carried  sufficiently 
far,  and  that  if  we  were  to  go  on  without  a  rest  on 
something  else,  we  might  have  to  "  pay  the  penalty  of 
a  softened  brain." 

One  more  little  ''gem:"  ''If  mortals  think  that 
food  disturbs  the  harmonious  functions  of  mind  and 
body,  either  the  food  or  this  thought  must  be  dispensed 


i88        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

with,  for  the  penalty  is  coupled  with  this  belief."  We 
can't  help  wondering  if  Mrs.  Eddy  would  have 
thought  it  all  right  to  eat  a  nice  big  Welsh  rarebit 
just  at  bedtime.  We  are  inclined  to  think  that  even 
if  she  did  so  think,  she  might  still  have  had  "  mortal 
mind "  enough  to  "  report  the  food  as  undigested," 
which,  as  she  confesses,  sometimes  does  happen.  But 
she  assures  us  that  the  belief  that  there  would  in  any 
case  be  any  trouble  is  one  that  ''  totters  to  its  falling 
before  the  battle-axe  of  Science."  So  as  she,  if  any- 
one, was  an  expert  with  this  battle-axe,  she  would  have 
taken  a  "  dare  "  to  eat  the  rarebit,  undoubtedly.  Per- 
haps she  might  even  have  been  a  rival  of  the  man 
who  drank  sulphuric  acid  as  a  good  strong  tonic, 
and  when  asked  how  he  liked  it,  reported  that  it  was 
pretty  good,  but  that  he  was  afraid  there  was  some- 
thing the  matter  with  the  stuff,  for  "  when  he  blew  his 
nose  it  burned  holes  in  his  handkerchief." 

She  gives  a  case  of  a  woman  who  thought  that  she 
had  chronic  liver  complaint,  but  whom  she  cured  in 
a  few  minutes.  This  was  evidently  just  a  case  of 
hypochondria.  The  woman,  probably,  didn't  believe 
the  doctors,  but  was  persuaded  to  believe  Mrs.  Eddy. 
When  a  disease  is  imaginary,  that  is,  of  course,  a 
good  way  to  proceed  against  it,  if  the  one  who 
imagines  it  is  willing  to  listen  to  your  words.  But 
one  can  hardly  expect  to  succeed  in  this  way,  if  it  is 
a  case  of  a  tumor  or  cancer,  which  is  visible  to  every- 
one. Even  in  such  a  case,  however,  Mrs.  Eddy  says 
that  the  practitioner  must  really  refuse  to  believe  in  the 
existence  of  such  things,  when  he  "  argues  against 
their  reality."  Of  course,  if  he  can  actually  do  this, 
it  might  give  the  force  of  sincerity  to  his  arguments. 
But  it  is  a  pretty  hard  thing  to  do:    to  believe  Mrs. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       189 

Eddy  rather  than  one's  own  eyes.  And  yet  she  says 
it  is  "  mental  quackery  "  to  balk  even  at  this ;  and 
she  has  already  told  her  practitioners  that  "  quackery 
fails  at  length  to  inspire  the  credulity  of  the  sick  " 
(which  is  all  that  they  have  to  depend  on),  ''and 
then  they  cease  to  improve."  So  it  has  got  to  be 
done,  however  hard  it  may  seem;  or  you  must  stop 
your  "  practice." 

Well,  it  is  about  time  to  drop  this  absolutely  in- 
credible nonsense,  which  keeps  on  for  quite  a  number 
of  pages.  And  then  we  find  some  more  under  the  title 
of  "  Mental  Treatment  Illustrated."  Like  a  drowning 
man  catching  at  a  straw,  we  may  have  a  faint  hope 
that  some  facts  may  appear  in  this.  But  we  find 
nothing  but  the  same  stuff  which  she  has  been  giving 
us  all  along;  like  the  man  of  whom  Hood  writes, 
"  groping  in  the  dark  for  combustibles  in  the  coal- 
cellar,  and  finding  nothing  but  the  torturous  cat  and 
her  kittens." 

On  the  first  page  of  this,  we  find  something  which, 
though  not  an  "  illustration  "  of  anything  whatever,  is 
too  bad  to  be  let  go  without  comment. 

"  It  is  recorded,"  she  says,  ''  that  once  Jesus  asked 
the  name  of  a  disease — a  disease  which  moderns  call 
'dementia.'  The  demon,  or  devil,  replied  that  his  name 
was  Legion."  If  we  look  at  the  place  where  this  is 
recorded,  we  find  that  Our  Lord  did  not  ask  the 
name  of  any  disease  at  all.  Everyone,  as  well  as  He, 
knew  that  it  was  no  disease  that  the  man  had,  but  that 
he  was  simply  possessed  by  devils.  What  Jesus  asked, 
of  the  possessing  devil  was  what  his  name  was ;  and 
that  the  answer  was :  "  Legion ;  because  many  devils 
were  entered  into  him"   (Luke  viii.  30). 

Mrs.  Eddy  seems,  in  what  she  says,  to  try  to  make 


190       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

out  that  the  word  "  dementia "  has  some  connection 
with  the  word  **  demon."  But  that  is  just  an  example 
either  of  her  ignorance  or  her  attempts  to  impose  on 
the  ignorant.  She  goes  on  to  say  that  "  thereupon 
Jesus  cast  out  the  evil,  and  the  insane  man  was 
changed  and  straightway  became  whole.  The  Scrip- 
ture seems  to  import  that  Jesus  caused  the  evil  to  be 
self-seen  and  so  destroyed."  In  fact  "  the  Scripture 
seems  to  import "  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  does  not 
"  import "  anything.  It  simply  tells  us,  as  a  fact, 
that  the  ''  many  devils  "  which  had  possessed  the  poor 
man  went  out  of  him  at  the  Divine  command;  and 
entered  into  "  a  herd  of  many  swine,  feeding  on  the 
mountain ;  "  and  that  this  was  in  answer  to  a  request 
which  these  devils  had  made. 

This  whole  thing  Mrs.  Eddy  deliberately  omits,  be- 
cause it  is  against  her  theory  that  there  can't  be  any 
real  devils.  It  is  of  no  importance  to  her  that  ''  the 
Master  "  had  a  different  opinion,  or  that  His  opinion 
was  confirmed  by  the  actual  facts.  He  was  only 
an  imperfect  "  student "  of  Christian  Science,  any- 
way; what  could  His  opinion  amount  to,  and  why 
mention  it  when  not  in  accord  with  hers? 

Indeed,  the  same  thing  recorded  in  the  Gospel  occurs 
only  too  often,  even  now.  Diabolic  possession  is  an 
actual  fact,  and  we  do  not  have  to  go  back  to  the 
Bible  to  find  cases  of  it,  though  they  ought  to  be 
enough  for  a  Christian.  The  exorcisms  of  the  Church 
are  used  against  it,  and  frequently  prove  effectual. 
But  it  is  a  dangerous  thing  to  meddle  with.  We 
read  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  that  some  Jewish 
exorcists  tried  to  drive  out  devils  by  the  formula,  "  I 
conjure  you  by  Jesus,  whom  Paul  preacheth."  But 
the  reply  that  they  got  was,  ''  Jesus  I  know,  and  Paul 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       191 

I  know,  but  who  are  you  ?  And  the  man  in  whom  the 
wicked  spirit  was,  leaping  upon  them,  and  mastering 
them  both,  prevailed  against  them,  so  that  they  fled 
out  of  that  house  naked  and  wounded."  We  some- 
times find  at  the  present  time  that  even  when  the 
exorcism  is  successful,  the  spirits  expelled  may  take 
vengeance  on  the  exorcist,  as  it  is  C[uite  natural  that 
they  should. 

We  have  dwelt  upon  this  matter  at  some  length,  be- 
cause of  the  unbelief  which  has  crept  in  lately,  even 
among  many  Bible  Christians,  about  this  plain  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible.  And  even  were  it  not  taught  in 
Scripture  there  are  enough  plain  proofs  of  it  in  modern 
spiritism  to  convince  those  who  examine  the  facts,  and 
do  not  shut  their  ears  to  evidence,  to  be  convinced 
of  its  reality.  There  is,  of  course,  nothing  new  in  the 
"  illustrations,"  here  supposed  to  be  made.  But  there 
are  some  funny  remarks  which  may  enliven  the  reader 
a  little. 

She  says,  for  instance,  that  "  etherization  will  ap- 
parently cause  the  body  to  disappear."  Wonder  if  it 
disapppears  from  sight  of  the  bystanders,  as  well  as 
of  the  person  etherized.  If  it  doesn't,  nothing  seems 
to  be  proved.  In  this  little  paragraph  she  seems  to 
be  fighting  the  old  "  straw  man,"  as  if  there  were 
somebody  who  held  that  pain  is  in  matter  independent 
of  mind,  and  ought  to  go  on  when  the  mysterious  con- 
nection of  the  two  is  temporarily  broken. 

Another  strange  phenomenon,  she  says,  sometimes 
occurs :  "  If  the  reader  of  this  book  observes  a  great 
stir  throughout  his  whole  system,  and  certain  moral 
and  physical  symptoms  seem  aggravated,"  she  tells  us 
that  "  these  indications  are  favorable."  One  doesn't 
quite  understand  how  any  "  great  stir  "  can  be  pro- 


192       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

duced  by  reading  the  book,  except  in  the  way  either 
of  amusement,  or  of  indignation,  that  anyone  can 
venture  to  pahii  off  such  absurdity  on  an  unsuspecting 
pubHc.  We  have  noticed  in  ourselves  some  moral  and 
physical  symptoms  of  both  these  kinds,  and  are  glad 
to  know  that  they  are  favorable.  She  advises  us  to 
"  continue  to  read,"  and  the  advice  is  probably  good. 
Even  a  little  stir  in  either  of  these  ways  is  not  a  bad 
thing;  it  keeps  life  off  the  dead  level  of  monotony 
which  might  be  caused  by  more  serious  reading.  Only 
one  shouldn't  read  too  much  at  a  time,  or  one's  mind 
might  get  unhinged,  as  the  author's  seems  to  have 
become. 

She  has  a  new  word  on  the  next  page,  which  evi- 
dently tickled  her  fancy.  It  is  the  "  matter-physician," 
whom  she  contrasts  with  the  "  metaphysician "  of 
course  to  the  advantage  of  the  latter.  She  uses  this 
last  word  so  often  that  she  really  seems  to  have 
guessed  that  it  must  mean  "  mind-physician." 

There  are,  of  course,  funny  things  on  every  page, 
but  even  these  may  become  monotonous,  so  we  refrain. 

This  chapter  concludes  with  "  a  mental  case,  sup- 
posed to  be  on  trial,  as  cases  are  tried  in  court."  This 
is  too  long  to  be  waded  through,  so  we  may  be  ex- 
cused, as  it  is  really  the  same  old  story  over  again. 
So  we  will  go  on  to 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Teaching  Christian  Science. 

We  are  glad  to  see,  in  the  beginning  of  this,  that 
Mrs.  Eddy,  even  if  she  had  had  the  power  to  require 
us  to  employ  "  metaphysicians  "  instead  of  the  regular 
faculty,  when  attacked  by  some  ailment,  would  not 


The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science        193 

have  compelled  us  to  do  so.  The  Mind-physician,  she 
tells  us,  "  should  give  up  cases  of  persistent  failure 
to  experience  the  healing  power  of  Christian  Science," 
and  leave  "  invalids  free  to  resort  to  whatever  other 
systems  they  fancy  will  afford  relief."  And  probably 
the  same  favor  might  be  extended  even  to  those  who 
are  so  sure  that  there  is  nothing  in  it  that  they  never 
have  cared  about  trying  it  at  all. 

But  she  feels  quite  sure  that  they  will  come  to  it  in 
the  end.  She  does  not  admit  the  possibility,  it  would 
seem,  that  a  regular  doctor's  treatment  ever  succeeded, 
or  ever  can  succeed.  "  Sooner  or  later,"  she  says,  ''  all 
must  rise  superior  to  materiahty."  ''  If  the  sick  find 
these  material  expedients  unsatisfactory,  and  they  rt\- 
ceive  no  help  from  them,  these  very  failures  may  open 
their  blind  eyes."  But  she  does  not  tell  her  students 
what  to  do,  if  they  find  them  satisfactory,  as  they  do 
in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  when  there  is  any- 
thing really  the  matter.  If  one  finds  that  a  blue  pill  or 
a  dose  of  salts  vv^orks  all  right,  why  then  reserve  your 
Christian  Science  for  some  occasion  when  the  trouble 
is  not  so  "  material  "  would  seem  to  be  the  correct 
procedure.  "  The  teacher,"  she  says,  "  must  make 
clear  to  her  students  the  Science  of  healing,  especially 
its  ethics — that  all  is  Mind ;  "  that  is,  that  pantheism 
is  the  correct  doctrine. 

"  The  author  trembles,"  we  are  told,  ''  when  she  sees 
a  man,  for  the  petty  consideration  of  money,  teaching 
his  slight  knowledge  of  Mind-power."  As,  for  ex- 
ample, selling  a  little  book  on  the  subject  for  many 
times  the  money  required  to  produce  it.  The  price  of 
Science  and  Health  is,  we  are  credibly  informed, 
''  three  dollars  in  cloth,  six  when  it  is  finely  bound,  and 
shaped  to  imitate  the  Testament,  and  is  broken  into 


194       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

verses."  That  is  the  way  it  is  with  the  copy  which 
we  have  used  in  this  review,  which  was  lent  to  us 
by  a  friend,  to  whoni  it  was  presented  by  another. 
Perhaps  it  may  have  gone  down  since  the  time  of  the 
first  purchaser.  But  the  price  seems  rather  steep, 
especially  when  we  consider  that  the  usual  profits 
of  "  middlemen  "  and  advertisers  are  pretty  well  done 
away  with  by  the  obligation  resting  on  all  Scientists 
to  act  in  these  capacities.  For  the  following  com- 
mands were  issued  from  headquarters: 

"  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  all  Christian  Scientists  to 
circulate  and  to  sell  as  many  of  these  books  as  they 
can. 

"  If  a  member  of  the  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scien- 
tist, shall  fail  to  obey  this  injunction,  it  will  render 
him  liable  to  lose  his  membership  in  this  Church. 

"  Mary  Baker  Eddy." 

It  is  also  notable  in  the  very  book  itself  that  it  is  a 
matter  of  faith  that  no  other  book  will  answer  the 
purpose.  We  are  told  distinctly  that  "  a  Christian 
Scientist  requires  my  work  Science  and  Health  for  his 
textbook,  and  so  do  all  his  students  and  patients." 
(All  of  them,  mind  you;  even  a  patient's  cure  can- 
not be  hoped  for  unless  he  himself  buys  the  book. 
A  mere  reading  of  it  will  not  suffice.  He  must  ponder 
it,  and  let  it  sink  into  his  mind.) 

"  Why  does  a  Scientist  require  it?  "  she  asks.  "  Oh, 
that  is  very  simple. 

"  First,  because  it  is  the  voice  of  Truth  to  this  age, 
and  contains  the  full  statement  of  Christian  Science, 
or  the  Science  of  healing  through  Mind. 

"  Second,  because  it  was  the  first  book  known  con- 
taining  a   thorough    statement   of   Christian    Science. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       195 

Hence  it  gave  the  first  rules  for  demonstrating  this 
Science,  and  registered  the  real  Truth  uncontaminated 
by  human  hypotheses."  (In  other  words  because  it 
is  a  book  inspired  in  every  word,  and  of  course  noth- 
ing can  take  its  place.) 

But  now,  in  a  few  words,  the  real  cat  is  let  out  of 
the  bag.  *'  Other  works,  which  have  borrowed  from 
this  book  without  giving  it  credit,  have  adulterated  the 
Science." 

Other  works,  no  matter  how  completely  they  state 
the  "  Science/'  unless  they  give  her  hook  credit  (that 
is  to  say  advertise  it,  and  promote  the  profits  accruing 
to  Mrs.  Eddy  personally  from  its  sale),  adulterate  the 
"  Science."  It  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion 
that  the  ''  Science  "  does  not  consist  in  what  is  printed 
in  the  book,  but  in  the  science  of  how  to  make  money 
out  of  it.     To  go  on  now  to  the  third  reason: 

"  Third,  because  this  book  has  done  more  for  teacher 
and  student,  for  healer  and  patient,  than  has  been  ac- 
complished by  other  books." 

It  is  easy  to  understand  why  this  should  be  so, 
because  there  are  no  other  books  which  are  allowed 
to  be  circulated  by  Scientists ;  and  no  one  not  at 
least  an  incipient  Scientist  is  likely  to  circulate  any 
books  at  all  about  this  "  Science." 

In  spite  of  all  this  she  avers  that  "  her  prime  ob- 
ject, since  entering  this  field  of  labor,  has  been  to  pre- 
vent suffering,  not  to  produce  it."  Well,  we  do  not 
say  that  she  wants  to  ''  produce  "  suffering ;  but  it 
does  seem  that  she  was  quite  willing  to  let  it  go  on, 
rather  than  to  have  it  prevented  or  stopped  by  any 
other  means.  Let  a  person  continue  to  suffer  agonies 
from  a  toothache,  for  instance,  rather  than  violate 
"  scientific  "   principles  by  having  a  dentist  interfere 


196        The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science 

with  it.  Of  course,  she  does  not  prohibit  anyone  not 
a  full  member  of  her  Church  from  weakening  a  little 
on  its  principles,  for  she  knows  of  course  that  it 
would  be  useless  to  do  so.  But  a  fully  approved  mem- 
ber, whom  she  can  control,  mus.t  go  on  suffering;  must 
just  grin  and  bear  it  unless  "  science  "  comes  to  his 
relief. 

In  the  end  of  this  chapter,  there  is  a  concession 
which  really  is  remarkable: 

"  If,"  she  says,  "  from  an  injury  or  any  other  cause 
a  Christian  Scientist  were  seized  with  pain  so  violent 
that  he  could  not  treat  himself  mentally — and  the 
Scientists  had  failed  to  relieve  him — the  sufferer  could 
call  a  surgeon,  who  would  give  him  a  hypodermic  in- 
jection, then,  when  the  belief  of  pain  was  lulled,  he 
could  handle  his  own  case  mentally." 

There  are  lots  of  things  in  this,  which,  in  the  words 
of  Lord  Dundreary,  "  no  fellow  can  understand."  In 
the  first  place,  how  could  there  be  any  injury  to  a 
Christian  Scientist,  or  indeed  to  anyone  whatever. 
''  Injuries,"  at  any  rate  if  only  material,  as  seems  to 
be  implied,  really  do  not  and  cannot  occur.  If  even 
one's  leg  seems  to  be  cut  off,  it  is  only  an  "  error  of 
mortal  mind."  The  leg  is  really  as  much  there  as  it 
ever  was.  And  then  even  if  injuries  did  occur,  there 
could  not  be  any  pain  from  them,  at  any  rate  to  a 
full-fledged  Scientist,  as  is  supposed  in  the  case. 

Furthermore,  what  good  could  a  hypodermic  injec- 
tion do  ?  It  would  be  only  a  *'  drug,"  and  any  real 
Scientist  knows  that  drugs  are  also  errors  of  mortal 
mind.  Such  an  one  could  not  have  even  a  "  belief  of 
pain,"  and  even  if  he  had,  how  could  hypodermic  in- 
jections relieve  beliefs?  Surely  not  unless  this  alleged 
Christian  Scientist  believed  in  them  too.     And  surely 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       197 

that  would  be  almost  an  incredible  apostasy,   which 
ought  to  turn  him  out  of  the  Church  at  once. 

Next  after  this  chapter,  comes  another,  which  is 
headed 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Recapitulation. 

There  is  not,  of  course,  much  hope  of  finding  any- 
thing in  this  which  is  not  in  the  previous  chapters.  But 
we  might  expect  to  find  some  condensation  of  what 
has  been  hitherto  spread  out  and  as  it  were  diluted. 
Still,  in  glancing  over  the  contents,  we  find  some  of 
the  points  to  be  pretty  long,  as  if  it  was  rather  hard 
to  boil  them  down  into  good  and  convenient  form.  A 
catechism,  as  this,  one  would  think,  ought  to  be  in- 
tended for,  would  not  be  very  practical  in  its  present 
shape.  The  questions  in  it  are  short  enough,  but  to 
remember  the  answers  must  be  rather  a  strain  on  the 
memory,  as  they  sometimes  spread  over  several  pages. 

The  first  three  questions,  and  the  answers  too,  are 
quite  brief  and  are  fairly  correct,  though  the  words  are 
not  used  in  their  proper  and  accepted  meaning.  But 
time  and  space  are  too  valuable  to  bother  much  about 
a  comparatively  little  thing  like  that.  We  can  put 
it  down  to  a  want  of  mental  and  verbal  training.  But 
these  three  questions  being  asked  and  answered,  the 
nonsense  begins  to  appear.  The  fourth  question  is : 
"  What  are  spirits  and  souls  ?  "  The  answer  begins 
as  follows :  ''To  human  belief  they  are  personalities, 
constituted  of  mind  and  matter,  truth  and  error,  good 
and  evil." 

"If  human  belief "  means  the  belief  of  human 
beings,  this  is  a  very  strange   statement.     We  have 


198       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

never  heard  of  even  a  single  human  being  who  had 
the  notion  that  spirits  or  souls  were  constituted  of 
mind  and  matter.  No  human  being  whom  we  have 
ever  met  had  any  idea  that  a  spirit  or  soul  had  any 
matter  in  its  constitution  at  all.  As  to  its  being  a  mix- 
ture of  *'  life  and  death,"  such  a  weird  idea  cannot 
even  be  understood  by  an  ordinary  sensible  human 
being.  No  Christian,  at  any  rate,  believes  that  the 
human  soul,  in  itself,  dies.  Indeed  the  word  "  death  " 
has  no  meaning,  strictly  speaking,  as  applied  to  it  by 
itself.  What  Christians  believe  is  that  the  human  soul 
is  during  life  (as  we  commonly  understand  the  word) 
in  union  with  a  material  body,  which  serves  as  a 
means  of  communication  for  it  with  the  rest  of  the 
material  world.  Why  the  body  should  be  needed  for 
this  purpose,  we  do  not  know ;  but  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  we  know  that  normally  or  regularly  it  is.  What 
is  meant  by  death  is  simply  the  breaking  off  of  this 
normal  or  regular  communication.  It  is  as  absurd  to 
speak  of  a  human  soul  as  being  constituted  of  life  and 
death,  as  it  would  be  to  speak  of  a  man  as  being  con- 
stituted of  "  living  at  Boston  and  leaving  Boston." 
Similarly,  it  is  as  absurd  to  speak  of  the  soul  as  being 
"  constituted  of  truth  and  error,"  as  it  would  be  to 
speak  of  a  schoolboy  as  being  constituted  of  adding  up 
a  column  of  figures  right  and  adding  it  up  wrong.  The 
soul  may  be  correct  in  its  beliefs  or  opinions,  or  it 
may  be  incorrect  in  them ;  that  is  all  that  the  words 
mean.  But  it  isn't  "  constituted  "  of  correctness  and 
incorrectness,  and  can't  be  both  correct  in  any  definite 
opinion,  and  incorrect  in  it,  at  the  same  time. 

In  the  next  sentence,  our  learned  Prof.  Eddy  tells 
us  that  *'  there  is  no  finite  soul  or  spirit."  Though 
this  is  evidently  and  absolutely  false,  still  we  must  not 


4 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       199 

quarrel  with  it  just  here ;  for  of  course  it  is  merely 
a  statement  of  opinion. 

The  next  question  of  the  catechism  is:  "What  are 
the  demands  of  the  Science  of  Soul?  "  We  will  mark 
the  questions  in  order;  so  this  will  be  Question  5, 
the  first  three  not  needing  special  notice. 

There  really  is  not  much  in  this,  except  a  repetition 
of  the  materialist  idea  of  the  quart  and  the  pint-pot. 
"  The  belief,"  we  are  told,  **  that  the  greater  can  be 
in  the  lesser  is  an  error  that  works  ill."  Then  comes 
an  unintelligible  remark  that  *'  this  is  a  leading  point 
in  the  Science  of  Soul,  that  Principle  is  not  in  its 
idea."  We  thought  that  Principle  was  everything,  but 
now  it  seems  it  is  excluded  from  the  "  Science  of 
Soul."  Next,  "  we  reason  imperfectly  from  the  effect 
to  cause,  when  we  conclude  that  matter  is  the  effect 
of  Spirit."  Just  how  the  imperfection  of  the  reason 
comes  in.  Dr.  Eddy  does  not  deign  to  show.  She 
says,  however,  that  ''  a  priori  reasoning  shows  material 
existence  to  be  enigmatical."  It  is  quite  true,  as  we 
have  stated  in  the  beginning,  that  it  is  "  enigmatical," 
if  by  that  is  meant  "  not  perfectly  intelligible."  But 
that  does  not  prevent  it  from  being  a  fact,  thoroughly 
ascertainable  by  the  senses  by  which  God  manifests 
it  to  us.  Then  comes  the  old  stuff,  that  "  matter 
neither  sees,  hears,  nor  feels,"  as  if  somebody  had  said 
that  it  did.  Of  course  it  does  not  see,  hear  or  feel; 
but  it  is  the  means  which  God  has  provided  to  enable 
spirit  to  become  aware  of  its  existence. 

Question  6.  "  What  is  the  scientific  statement  of 
being?" 

Answer.  "  There  is  no  life,  truth,  intelligence,  nor 
substance  in  matter.  All  is  infinite  Mind,  and  its 
infinite  manifestation  for  God  is  All-in-all Spirit 


200       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

is  the  real  and  eternal ;  matter  is  the  unreal  and 
temporal." 

Real  and  unreal  are  good  words  to  use  to  pull  the 
wool  over  people's  eyes;  but  it  would  be  gratifying 
to  have  Prof.  Eddy  give  a  clear  definition  of  them. 

Question  7.     *' What  is  substance?" 

Answer.  "  Substance  is  that  which  is  eternal  and  in- 
capable   of    discord    and    decay." "Spirit,    the 

synonym  of  Mind,  Soul,  or  God,  is  the  only  real 
substance." 

In  other  words,  pantheism  is  the  true  doctrine. 

Questions.  "What  is  life?" 

Answer.  "  Life  is  divine  Principle,  Mind,  Soul, 
Spirit." 

Yet,  just  now,  we  were  told  that  "  it  is  a  leading 
point  in  the  Science  of  Soul,  that  Principle  is  not  in  its 
idea." 

Question  9.     "What  is  intelligence?" 

Answer.  ''Intelligence  is  omniscience,  omnipresence, 
and  omnipotence." 

We  begin  to  see  now  why  Dr.  Eddy  has  no  in- 
telligence. 

It  is  just  because  she  is  not  omnipresent  and  om- 
nipotent. 

Question  10.     "What  is  Mind?" 

Answer.    "  Mind  is  God There  can  be  but  one 

Mind,  because  there  is  but  one  God,  and  if  mortals 
claimed  no  other  Mind  and  accepted  no  other,  sin 
would  be  unknown." 

For  mortals  to  claim  the  Divine  Alind,  seems  to  be 
rather  a  big  claim,  except,  of  course,  in  the  case  of 
our  Professor;  but  as  to  accepting  no  other,  the  rest 
of  us  have  to  be  content  with  what  God  has  seen  fit 
to  give  us. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       201 

Later  in  this  "  answer  "  the  Doctor  says  that  ''  the 
supposed  existence  of  more  than  one  mind  was  the 
basic  error  of  idolatry."  It  really  would  seem  to  be 
just  the  other  way.  For  if  we  have  no  mind  except 
the  "  Mind  of  God,"  then  "  idolatry,"  which  is  the 
giving  of  Divine  honor  to  man,  or  to  something  which 
he  has  made,  would  not  be  an  ''  error,"  whether 
"  basic  "  or  of  any  other  kind. 

Another  ''  gem  "  worth  quoting  appears  toward  the 
end  of  this  answer.  Dr.  Eddy  tells  us  that  the  "  so- 
called  senses  receive  no  intimation  of  the  earth's  mo- 
tions or  of  the  science  of  astronomy." 

Was  the  science  of  astronomy  got  at,  then,  by  Divine 
revelation  like  Eddian  science?  We  have  always  sup- 
posed that  it  was  laboriously  built  on  careful  ob- 
servations made  by  the  senses. 

Question  11.  ''Are  doctrines  and  creeds  a  benefit 
to  man  ?  " 

Answer.  "  The  author  subscribed  to  an  orthodox 
creed  in  early  youth,  and  tried  to  adhere  to  it  until 
she  caught  the  first  gleam  of  that  which  interprets 
God  as  above  mortal  sense.  This  view^  rebuked  human 
beliefs,  and  gave  the  spiritual  import,  expressed 
through  Science,  of  all  that  proceeds  from  the  divine 
Mind." 

Well  this  certainly  is  rather  a  stunner.  We  had, 
previously,  some  kind  of  an  idea  that  her  pretending 
to  be  God  was  just  a  sort  of  formula,  to  which  she  liad 
been  driven  by  what  she  took  to  be  logic.  But  now  it 
seems  that  w^hen  she  got  her  "  gleam,"  she  attained,  at 
one  leap,  to  a  knowledge  of  ''  all  that  proceeds  from 
the  divine  Mind."  That  was  surely  ''  some  "  gleam. 
The  prophets  did  not  begin  to  be  in  it  with  her.  They 
only  knew  just  a  little,  as  much  as  God  chose  to  reveal 


202       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

to  them.  And  then  as  to  what  we  call  natural  knowl- 
edge, which  we  believe  comes  to  us  largely  by  the 
Divine  illumination  of  our  reason,  it  must  have  all 
come  to  her  in  a  moment  by  this  "  gleam."  She  was, 
she  must  have  been,  familiar  with  all  the  researches, 
for  instance,  of  the  higher  mathematics.  Quaternions 
would  have  been  mere  child's  play  to  her.  In  the 
Mecanique  Celeste  of  La  Place,  he  sometimes  says, 
''  thus  we  easily  see  so  and  so."  Bowditch,  who  made 
a  translation  of  this  great  book,  said  that  when  he  saw 
this,  he  knew  that  he  was  in  for  a  couple  of  days  of 
hard  work,  and  the  using  up  of  many  pages  of 
foolscap.  But  Prof.  Eddy  would  have  seen  through 
the  whole  business  at  a  glance. 

It  surely  is  a  great  pity  that  she  did  not  give  to 
some  of  us  poor  mortals  some  help  in  these  studies 
that  cost  us  so  much  labor.  But  no,  she  was  too  far 
above  us.  But  she  might  have  written  something  in 
these  lines,  for  us  to  break  our  poor  heads  over.  She 
could  have  given  us  the  results,  at  any  rate,  even  if 
we  could  not  follow  the  steps;  and  they  would  have 
been  quite  useful,  and  we  would  have  humbly  accepted 
them,  if  they  worked  out  all  right,  like  those  of  La 
Place. 

Question  12.    ''What  is  error?" 

Answer.  '*  Error  is  a  supposition  that  pleasure  and 
pain,  that  intelligence,  substance,  life,  are  existent  in 
matter." 

Really,  Professor,  it  seems  to  us  that  these  three 
ought  not  to  be  lumped  together.  "  Intelligence  "  is 
not  the  same  thing  as  either  substance  or  life,  and  the 
last  two  differ  from  each  other.  And  then  you  say 
that  ''  error  is  a  belief  without  understanding."  If 
we  believe  this  first  statement  of  yours,  then,  we  fall 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       203 

into  "  error,"  because  it  is  one  which  no  one  can  pos- 
sibly understand,  as  it  has  no  definite  meaning.  If 
you  had  said  that  it  was  error  to  suppose  that  any  one 
of  these  three  were  existent  in  matter,  we  should  have 
had  three  different  examples  of  ''  error."  But  in  a 
definition,  as  this  is  supposed  to  be,  to  give  examples 
instead  of  a  definition  hardly  seems  to  fill  the  bill.  It 
would  seem  better  to  say  simply  that  "  error  "  is  the 
taking  something  as  true,  when  it  really  is  not  so. 
But  then  we  all  know  that;  so  of  course  we  should 
not  need  to  ask  the  question,  or  to  get  any  answer. 

Question  13.  ''  Is  there  no  sin?" 

Answer.  This  question  seems,  if  we  may  speak  so 
irreverently,  to  be  dodged  by  our  learned  Professor. 
She  says  that  "  the  only  reality  of  sin,  sickness,  or 
death  is  the  awful  fact  that  unrealities  seem  real  to 
human,  erring  belief,  until  God  strips  off  their  dis- 
guise." 

But  we  were  not  asking  whether  sin  is  what  she 
calls,  in  her  way  of  speaking,  a  ''  reality."  The  only 
sense  of  the  question  is,  whether  people  ever  do  fall 
into  the  ''  unreality  "  which  is  commonly  called  "  sin." 
They  certainly  are  sometimes  sick;  otherwise  her 
whole  business  of  "  healing  the  sick  "  would  disappear. 
Of  course  their  sickness  may  be  an  "  unreality  "  or  an 
"illusion;"  but  still'  the  illusion  is  there,  to  be 
"  healed."  And  the  same  about  sin ;  the  question  is 
''  do  people  fall  sometimes  even  into  this  'unreality,*  as 
well  as  into  that  which  we  call  sickness?  " 

Question   14.    '' What  is  man  ?  " 

Answer.  ''  Man  is  not  matter ;  he  is  not  made  up 
of  brain,  blood,  bones,  and  other  material  elements." 
Nobody,  except  some  non-Christian  materialists,  ever 
said  that  he  was;    so  this  seems  to  be  needless.     We 


204        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

want  to  know  what  he  is,  not  what  he  isn't.  She  goes 
on,  however,  to  this :  "  Man  is  idea,  the  image,  of 
Love." 

We  wish  that  we  were ;  but  sometimes  man  does  not 
answer  to  this  description.  When  one  man  murders 
another  (which  sometimes,  Professor,  really  happens) 
he  is  more  like  the  image  of  hate.  The  question  is 
not  what  he  ought  to  be,  but  what  he  actually  is. 
You  can't  answer  it  by  this  high-sounding  talk  about 
"  reality." 

What  you  go  on  to  say,  that  *'  he  has  no  separate 
mind  from  God,"  is  obviously  and  blatantly  untrue. 
If  it  were  true,  he  would  never  make  a  mistake,  even 
in  a  small  thing  like  adding  up  a  column  of  figures ; 
still  less  would  he  commit  the  "  unreality  "  (as  you 
call  it)  of  sin.  But  she  goes  on,  courageously,  in  the 
teeth  of  evidence.  ''  Man  is  incapable  of  sin,  sickness 
and  death."  If  man  is  incapable  of  sin,  sickness  and 
death,  why  are  you  making  such  a  fuss  about  healing 
the  sick? 

She  says  "  the  real  man  cannot  depart  from  holi- 
ness." If  this  is  so,  all  we  can  say  is  that  up-to-date 
the  number  of  real  men,  in  all  history,  can  be  counted 
on  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  The  only  ones  that  any- 
one feels  sure  of  are  our  Lord  Himself,  His  Blessed 
Mother,  and  St.  John  Baptist.  Why  don't  you  say  the 
ideal  man,  instead  of  the  real  man?  That  is  what  you 
really  mean.  And  why  do  you,  who  call  yourselves 
"  Scientists,"  pay  attention  to  this  nonsense,  which  con- 
tradicts our  own  interior  science  or  knowledge  of 
yourselves  ? 

But  it  is  not  simply  and  merely  nonsense.  It  is  a 
very  dangerous  kind  of  nonsense.  The  doctrine  of 
"  total  depravity,"  seriously  held  in  the  early  days  of 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       205 

the  Reformation,  was  bad  enough,  as  representing  that 
man  could  in  no  way  attain  to  hoHness ;  that  he  must 
to  all  eternity  remain  sinful,  with  his  sins  the  same  as 
ever,  but  ignored  by  the  Most  High,  and  hidden 
from  His  sight  by  the  mantle  of  the  righteousness 
of  the  Redeemer.  But  at  least  one  expected  not  to 
add  to  his  sins  after  death,  and  to  be  then  really  in 
peace,  and  in  a  way  in  union  with  God. 

But  this  delusion  is  far  worse,  for  it  does  not  free 
one  from  sin,  even  in  appearance.  For  it  does  not 
acknowledge  its  existence.  It  hides  sin  from  our  own 
sight  as  well  as  trying  to  hide  it  from  that  of  God; 
and  of  course  recognizes  no  responsibility  in  us  for  it, 
and  consequently  makes  repentance  for  it  impossible. 
It  shuts  the  door  of  heaven  in  our  faces.  It  also  makes 
union  with  God  for  us  impossible,  by  falsely  asserting 
that  we  have  it  already;  that  we  are  not  only  in 
union  with  Him,  but  indeed  identical  with  Him.  Open 
your  eyes,  and  see  whose  words  these  are,  in  whose 
steps  the  author  of  this  false  Science  is  treading. 
You  will  find  them  in  the  prophet  Isaias  (xiv.  12-15). 
"  How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  O  Lucifer,  who 

didst  rise  in  the  morning! Thou  saidest  in  thy 

heart;    I   will   ascend   into  heaven,   I   will   exalt  my 

throne   above   the   stars   of   God I    will   ascend 

above  the  height  of  the  clouds,  I  will  be  like  the  most 
High.  But  yet  thou  shalt  be  brought  down  to  hell, 
into  the  depth  of  the  pit."  And  our  Blessed  Lord  con- 
firms this  sentence.  ''  He  that  exalteth  himself  shall 
be  humbled." 

Question  15.    "What  are  body  and  soul?" 
Answer.     Here  the  question  asked  seems  again  to 
be  dodged,   for  no  apparent  reason.     The  Professor 
starts  by  telling  us  what  "  identity  "  is,  but  nothing 


2o6       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

about  "  body."  She  does,  however,  deign,  to  say  that 
"  Soul  is  the  substance.  Life,  and  intelHgence  of  man." 
Of  course  we  have  now  learned  enough  "  science  "  to 
understand  that  man  has  no  intelligence  of  his  own ; 
that  is  the  reason  why  he  never  makes  any  mistakes, 
or  falls  into  error.  It  is  only  "  mortal  man  "  who  does 
this;  but  as  all  men  really  are  mortal  (even  the  Pro- 
fessor herself,  as  events  have  shown)  it  seems  of  little 
use  to  tell  us  about  any  other  kind  of  man.  How- 
ever, we  know  that  when  she  writes  Soul  with  a  big 
S,  she  means  God. 

Now,  however,  comes  something  really  startling: 
"  Separated  from  man,  who  expresses  Soul,  Spirit 
would  be  a  nonentity."  But  Spirit  (with  a  big  S)  also 
means  God.  We  learn,  then,  that  separated  from  man, 
God  would  be  a  nonentity.  But  we  are  encouraged 
by  hearing  that  there  is  no  danger  of  this,  for 
"  man  is  coexistent  with  God."  It  is  true  that 
the  Scriptures  say  (Gen.  i.  27)  that  "God  created 
man ;"  but  what  are  they  compared  with  Science  and 
Health? 

She  proceeds  to  tells  us  that  the  ordinary  kind  of 
man  (even  the  Professor  herself)  can  have  no  evidence 
of  Soul,  that  is  to  say,  of  God.  *'  Alan,"  she  says, 
"  has  never  beheld  Spirit  or  Soul  leaving  a  body  or 
entering  it."  And  of  course,  according  to  her  ma- 
terialistic ideas,  which  she  jumps  to  whenever  she 
thinks  there  is  no  need  of  pretending  to  denounce  them, 
can  have  no  evidence  except  that  of  t-he  material  senses. 
And  this  seems  to  be  true  not  only  of  "  mortal  man," 
but  of  any  possible  kind  of  man.  For  she  makes  the 
last-quoted  statement  of  "  man  "  in  the  most  general 
sense  of  the  word.  Even  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  is  no 
exception  to  it. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       207 

This  is  a  terrible  result  to  get  from  our  "  science," 
that  there  is  no  God. 

Question  16.  "  Does  brain  think,  and  do  nerves 
feel,  and  is  there  intelligence  in  matter  ?  " 

Answer.  Having  no  further  use,  just  now,  for  her 
materialism,  she  immediately  proceeds  to  attack  it. 
But  there  is  really  no  use  in  this,  as  far  as  her  cam- 
paign against  Christianity  is  concerned,  for  Christians 
have  no  idea  that  "  brain  thinks,"  or  any  of  the  rest 
of  it. 

There  is  no  need,  therefore,  for  us  Christians  to  go 
into  all  the  incoherent  nonsense  which  she  spreads  out 
through  her  ''  answer."  But  there  are  some  little 
"  gems  "  of  it,  which  stand  out,  as  it  were,  from  the 
rest. 

For  instance,  she  says,  quite  correctly,  that  "  man 
is  not  God,  and  God  is  not  man."  But  we  have  learned 
in  the  answer  to  Question  14  that  "  man  has  no 
separate  mind  from  God ;  "  and  also,  in  many  places, 
that  his  body  is  only  an  illusion.  The  difference,  then, 
between  man  and  God  must  be  just  simply  one  of  size, 
as  far  as  we  can  make  out.  Man  is  God,  according 
to  Dr.  Eddy,  but  of  course,  on  a  small  scale.  The  old 
"  material  "  idea  again. 

Again,  "  God,  or  good,  never  made  man  capable  of 
sin.  It  is  the  opposite  of  good — that  is,  evil — which 
seems  to  make  man  capable  of  wrong  doing.  Hence 
evil  is  but  an  illusion,  and  it  has  no  real  basis." 

It  is  too  bad  that  man  should  be  hanged,  or  electro- 
cuted, simply  on  account  of  an  illusion.  The  jury 
ought  to  say,  "  Not  guilty,"  every  time.  No  basis 
even  for  any  indictment. 

Again,  "  Human  hypotheses  first  assume  the  reality 
of   "  sickness,   sin   and   death,   and   then   assume  the 


2o8       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

necessity  of  these  evils  because  of  their  admitted 
actuality." 

The  trouble  with  our  learned  Professor  seems  largely 
to  have  been  that  she  got,  somehow,  a  little  smattering 
of  philosophy,  and  that  she  found,  or  thought  she 
found,  in  it  the  statement  that  evil  had  no  existence, 
being  merely  a  negation  of  good.  This  is,  in  a  sense, 
true ;  it  is  like  the  statement  in  mathematics,  that 
negative,  or  minus  quantities,  have  no  real  existence, 
which  is  also  true.  But  all  the  same,  the  operation 
denoted  by  them  has  a  real  significance. 

In  money  matters,  for  instance,  if  a  man  owes  a 
sum  of  money  this  is  a  "  negative  "  asset,  and  just  as 
real  as  a  positive  one.  And  this  applies  precisely  to 
the  matter  of  *'  sin."  God  has  given  us  all  that  we 
have  or  can  have.  In  return,  we  owe  Him  all  the 
service  we  can  give.  We  can  never  get  on  the  credit 
or  positive  side  of  the  account.  Our  Lord  tells  us 
(Luke  xvii.  lo)  :  *'  So  you  also,  when  you  shall  have 
done  all  these  things  that  are  commanded  you,  say: 
We  are  unprofitable  servants;  we  have  done  that 
which  we  ought  to  do." 

But  w^e  have  not,  in  fact,  done  all  things  that  are  com- 
manded to  us.  We  are,  in  other  words,  guilty  of  many 
sins  of  omission.  We  have, moreover,  done  many  things 
which  were  distinctly  forbidden  to  us  or,  in  other  words, 
are  guilty  of  many  sins  of  "  commission."  It  is  simply 
nonsense  to  say  that  there  is  no  "  reality  "  in  all  these 
sins.  To  deny  that  there  is  any  reality  in  them  is 
simply  to  add  another  sin,  of  falsehood,  to  the  list. 
And  to  say,  as  she  does,  that  ''  if  sin  is  supported  " 
(that  is  to  say,  the  fact  of  sin)  "  God  must  uphold  it," 
is  to  make  the  nonsense  blasphemous,  as  well  as  false. 

*'  In  Science,"  we  are  told,  "  it  is  material  sense,  not 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        209 

Soul,  which  sins."  Prof.  Eddy  tries  to  escape  from 
her  nonsense,  by  spelling  soul  with  a  big  S ;  which 
makes  it  mean  that  ''  it  is  not  God  Who  sins."  We  all 
know  that.  But  she  really  means  that  it  is  not  soul 
which  sins  (with  a  small  ''s")  ;  for  soul  is  the  same 
as  Soul,  according  to  her  own  doctrine.  Trying  to 
throw  the  blame  on  ''  material  sense  "  will  not  work ; 
there  is  no  sense,  ''  material  "  or  otherwise,  in  doing  so. 

She  tries  to  confuse  herself  and  us  by  saying  that 
"  human  thought  has  adulterated  the  meaning  of  the 
word  soul  through  the  hypothesis  that  soul  is  both  an 
evil  and  a  good  intelligence,  resident  in  matter." 
\\1iether  it  is  ''  resident  in  matter  "  or  not  makes  no 
difference.  The  worst  sins  are  committed  by  souls 
whom  no  one  claims  to  be  "  resident  in  matter." 
Spiritual  sins  (so-called  because  matter  is  not  con- 
cerned in  them)  like  those  of  the  devils  and  also  of 
many  human  beings,  and  of  which  the  chief  is  "pride," 
are  worse  than  any  others. 

What  she  calls  a  "  hypothesis  "  is  not  a  hypothesis 
at  all,  but  an  absolute  and  undeniable  fact,  with  which 
"  matter "  is  in  no  way  involved.  The  existence  of 
this  evil  intelligence  in  us,  which  is  the  cause  of  our 
innumerable  sins,  is  testified  to  us  by  our  conscience, 
which  Mrs.  Eddy  endeavors  to  smother  and  blind. 

This  impudent  error  is  practically  the  worst  and 
most  dangerous  of  all  in  her  alleged  ''  Christian 
Science."  Fortunately,  it  is  not,  and  cannot,  thank  God, 
be  fully  accepted  by  her  ''  students  "  and  probably  was 
not,  even  by  herself.  But  it  does  tend  to  give  to  any- 
one who  tries  to  accept  it  a  false  and  delusive  sense 
of  security,  similar  to  that  given  by  the  doctrine  of 
''  total  depravity,"  which  taught  that  man,  since  the 
Fall,  cannot  help  sinning  all  the  time;    and  that  the 


2IO        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

more  he  sins,  the  more  glory  is  given  to  the  Redemp- 
tion. This  present  error  goes  to  the  other  extreme, 
by  asserting  that  man  cannot  sin  at  all ;  that  it  is  only 
a  "  material  sense "  which  seems  to  sin,  for  which 
he  is  in  no  way  responsible. 

Neither  of  these  doctrines  can  be  thoroughly  ac- 
cepted by  anyone.  The  one  denies  the  possibility  of 
amendment;  the  other  that  there  is  anything  to  be 
amended.  "  I  believe  it,"  said  the  old  lady,  about  that 
of  total  depravity ;  "  but  I  can't  quite  live  up  to  it." 
And  so  it  is  with  ''  Christian  Science."  But  so  far  as 
they  are  accepted,  they  give  a  sort  of  false  and  de- 
lusive cheerfulness,  which  is  mistaken  by  those  who 
feel  it,  and  may  be  by  those  who  witness  it  in  others, 
for  a  good  and  healthy  state  of  things. 

Question  17.  "  Is  it  important  to  understand  these 
explanations,  in  order  to  heal  the  sick?  " 

Answer.  The  answer  given  has  nothing  in  it  which 
really  needs  to  be  noticed,  as  it  has  all  been  dealt  with 
sufficiently  before.  It  may,  however,  be  remarked 
that  the  cheerfulness  of  which  we  have  just  spoken 
may  be  a  factor  in  restoring  health,  just  as  it  is  in 
any  other  of  the  kinds  of  treatment  to  which  Dr. 
Eddy  alludes,  by  "  drugs,  hygiene  or  animal  mag- 
netism." A  pleasant  and  cheerful  doctor  has  the  same 
effect,  as  everyone  knows. 

Question  18.  ''  Does  Christian  Science,  or  meta- 
physical healing,  include  medication,  material  hygiene, 
mesmerism,  hypnotism,  theosophy  or  spiritualism  ?  " 

Answer.    ''  Not  one  of  them  is  included  in  it." 

Well,  we  all  know  that.  If  you  want  to  be  cheer- 
ful, you  must  be  "  scientifically  "  so.  Other  means  for 
the  recovery  of  health  must  be  rigorously  excluded. 
"  Drugs  and  hygiene/'  particularly,  ''  because  they  op- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       211 

pose  the  supremacy  of  the  divine  Mind."  They  were 
not  made  by  the  divine  Mind ;  whoever  made  them  only 
Prof.  Eddy  ever  knew,  and  now  that  she  has  gone,  there 
is  no  one  to  tell  us.  It  is  like  the  story  of  the  professor 
who  once,  for  fun,  asked  a  stupid  boy,  "  What  is  elec- 
tricity? (A  question,  which  no  one  is,  as  yet,  able 
to  thoroughly  answer.)  The  poor  boy,  thinking  it  must 
have  been  in  his  book,  somewhere,  replied :  "  I  did 
know,  professor,  but  I've  forgotten."  ''  Well,"  says  the 
professor,  "  that  is  an  irreparable  loss  to  science.  You 
were  the  only  one  who  ever  did  know,  and  now  even 
you  have  forgotten." 

Question  19.  ''  Is  materiality  the  concomitant  of 
spirituality  and  is  spirituality,  and  is  material  sense, 
a  necessary  preliminary  to  the  understanding  and  ex- 
pression of  Spirit?  " 

Answer.  We  are  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  the 
learned  Professor  asks  this  question.  For  she  her- 
self tells  us  that  "  material  sense  "  is  an  absurd  phrase, 
and  in  her  meaning  of  the  word  everyone  not  a 
thorough-going  materialist,  such  as  have  apparently 
been  her  chief  associates,  agrees  with  her. 

There  are  one  or  two  ''gems,"  however,  in  her 
"  answer,"  which  may  help  to  the  main  object  of  Ed- 
dian  Science,  by  helping  toward  cheerfulness  and 
hilarity.  One  is  that  "man  never  dies.  The  belief 
that  he  dies  will  not  establish  his  scientific  harmony." 
Mrs.  Eddy  tried  to  keep  up  her  scientific  harmony  by 
not  yielding  to  this  belief.  But  at  last  even  she  had  to 
give  it  up  as  a  bad  job.  But  the  rest  of  us  seem  to 
keep  it  up  pretty  well,  in  spite  of  this  inevitable  belief. 
Again  she  says  ''  there  is  more  Science  in  the  per- 
petual exercise  of  the  Mind-faculties  than  in  their 
Joss."     It  seems  that  this  must  really  be  so,  and  that 


212       The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science 

this  must  be  the  trouble  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  alleged 
"  Science." 

Question  20.  "  You  speak  of  belief.  Who  or  what 
is  it  that  believes  ?  " 

Answer.  ''  Spirit  is  all  knowing;  this  precludes  the 
need  of  believing." 

Well,  if  we  know,  it  is  quite  true  that  we  don't  need 
to  believe.  But  the  comment  of  the  illustrious  ex- 
ponent of  common  sense.  Josh  Billings,  would  be 
well  for  Mrs.  Eddy  to  have  pondered;  namely,  that 
"  it  is  better  not  to  know  so  awful  much  than  to  know 
so  much  that  ain't  so."  This  applies  to  a  good  many 
things  that  pass  with  the  public  under  the  name  of 
"  science  "  at  the  present  day ;  but  to  none  more  than 
to  the  Eddian  variety. 

Question  21.  "Do  the  five  corporeal  senses  consti- 
tute man  ?  " 

Answer.  As  nobody  says  that  they  do,  the  answer 
seems  to  be  rather  superfluous.  But  there  is  a  "  gem  " 
of  the  first  water  in  the  Professor's  answer. 

She  says  that  ''  when  the  unthinking  lobster  loses 
its  claw  the  claw  grows  again."  So  she  feels  sure  that 
if  she  could  only  manage  to  be  "  unthinking  "  enough 
(she  does  go  pretty  far  in  that  way),  she  might  grow 
a  claw  herself.  She  doesn't  merely  beheve  this,  she 
knoivs  it.  ''  If  the  Science  of  Life  were  understood," 
she  actually  says,  "  the  human  limb  would  be  replaced 
as  readily  as  the  lobster's  claw.  Not  with  an  arti- 
ficial limb,  but  with  the  genuine  one,"  she  assures  us. 
But  why  not  with  a  claw,  if  that  were  preferred?  Or 
with  a  new  brain,  which  might,  in  spite  of  her  theories, 
be  convenient  for  some  people. 

You  can't  very  w^ell  reach  greater  heights  of  non- 
sense than  this.     But  she  wanders  on  to  variations, 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       213 

like  a  musical  composer,  when  he  has  an  appropriate 
theme,  or  "  motif,"  as  we  believe  the  slang  is  to-day. 
It  is  a  pity,  however,  to  spoil  such  a  gem  as  this  with 
any  kind  of  setting. 

Question  22.  "  Will  you  explain  sickness,  and  show 
how  it  is  to  be  healed  ?  " 

Answer.  For  this  question  the  answer  is  not  given. 
\\t  are  told  that  "  a  full  answer  to  it  requires  teaching, 
wdiich  enables  the  healer  to  demonstrate  and  prove  for 
himself  the  Principle  and  rule  of  Christian  Science  or 
metaphysical  healing."  ^Metaphysical  healing  means,  of 
course,  according  to  the  learned  Doctor's  idea,  healing 
without  "  physic."  So  we  are  forbidden  to  use  any 
kind  of  physic,  even  when  we  know  that  it  will  give 
the  result  desired.  If,  for  instance,  we  have  taken 
any  kind  of  poison,  we  must  sooner  die  than  take  an 
emetic,  though  we  may  know  that  in  this  way  we  can 
get  it  off  the  stomach.  Take  a  good  dose  of  Christian 
Science,  and  the  stomach  will  be  relieved  at  once. 

''  Mind,"  she  says,  "  must  be  found  superior  to  all 
the  beliefs  of  the  corporeal  senses,  and  able  to  destroy 
all  ills."  It  must  be  found  so.  But  she  does  not  say, 
in  a  case  like  the  one  just  mentioned,  what  is  to  be 
done  if  it  isn't  found  to  be  so,  in  fact.  Well,  the 
patient  must  die,  that  is  all.  For  there  isn't  time, 
in  such  a  case,  to  go  on  fooling  indefinitely.  The 
patient  must  offer  himself  as  a  sacrifice  to  "  the  idea 
of  Truth."  For  w^e  are  told  that  "  if  sickness  is  true 
or  the  idea  of  Truth  "  (that  is,  if  we  are  truly  sick), 
"  you  cannot  destroy  sickness,  and  it  would  be  absurd 
to  try." 

Question  23.  "  How  can  I  progress  most  rapidly 
in  the  understanding  of  Christian  Science?" 

Answer.     "  Study  thoroughly  the  letter  and  imbibe 


214        ^^'^  Truth  About  Clirislian  Science 

the  spirit In  the  Science  of  Mind,  you  will  soon 

ascertain  that  error  cannot  destroy  error." 

But  how  soon?  In  urgent  cases,  you  must  "  imbibe 
the  spirit  in  a  few  moments."  So  you  will  probably 
have  to  call  in  some  other  "  practitioner,"  who  has  al- 
ready managed  to  imbibe  it  at  his  leisure.  Don't  try 
to  be  one  yourself,  till  you  have  made  a  thorough  fool 
of  yourself,  for  you  may  be  standing  in  the  way  of 
others,  who  have  already  become  so. 

Question  24.  "  Have  Christian  Scientists  any 
creed  ?  " 

Answer.  "  They  have  not,  if  by  that  term  is  meant 
doctrinal  beliefs." 

Why  not  say  any  beliefs  at  all,  without  putting  in 
the  ''  doctrinal  ?  "  For  of  course  no  true  Scientist  can 
believe  anything  whatever.  He  knows  it  all.  The 
Professor,  however,  condescends  to  give  us  what  she 
says  are  "  the  important  points,  or  religious  tenets  of 
Christian  Science."  The  word  "  tenets  "  seems  rather 
unfortunate.  It  is  not  usual  to  speak  of  ''  tenets  "  in 
matters  of  science.  But  the  ones  which  are  given  are 
somewhat  in  the  ordinary  style  in  which  "  tenets  "  are 
given;  particularly  where  it  is  stated  in  No.  5,  that 
"  we  acknowledge  that  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  and 
His  resurrection  served  to  uplift  faith."  Here  we  find 
'*  faith  "  again.  This  must  certainly  be  a  little  slip, 
perhaps  due  to  want  of  care  in  proof-reading  at  the 
beginning;  and  of  course  it  was  too  late  to  correct  it 
in  later  editions,  like  the  one  which  we  have.  '^  Faith," 
except  in  Mrs.  Eddy^  could  be  of  no  use,  even  to  begin 
with. 

The  first  "  tenet  "  is  also  rather  astonishing.  Foi  in 
it  we  find  that  ''  as  adherents  of  Truth,  we  take  the 
inspired  word  of  the  Bible  as  our  sufficient  guide  to 


The  Tnitli  About  Christian  Science       215 

eternal  Life."  But  if  it  is  sufficient,  why  did  Mrs. 
Eddy  write  Science  and  Health,  and  sell  it  at  a  price 
so  much  higher  than  one  has  to  pay  for  a  fine  copy 
of  the  Bible?  And  why  oblige  every  Scientist  to  read 
it,  and  ''  imbibe  it,"  while  leaving  them  free,  as  regards 
the  Bible,  to  read  no  more  of  it  than  she  did  herself? 
Well,  we  have  now  waded  through  the  "  Recapitula- 
tion." It  seemed  at  first  as  if  it  was  going  to  be  a 
sort  of  condensation  of  what  had  been  given  in  the 
book.  But  it  is  really  just  the  same  sort  of  thing 
which  we  find  in  the  rest  of  the  book  all  through. 
The  main  points  could  really  have  been  given  in  a  form 
something  like  this : 

1.  There  is  nothing  in  the  world  except  Mind  (with 
a  big  M). 

2.  When  I  say  "  Mind,"  I  mean  God. 

3.  *'  Mind,"  or  God,  cannot  put  anything  else  in  the 
world.     Creation  is  quite  impossible. 

4.  "  Mind  "  is  sometimes  written  with  a  small  m. 
But  that  does  not  mean  that  there  is  any  such  thing 
as  mind,  with  a  small  m,  as  differing  from  Mind  with 
a  large  one.  Mind  (with  a  large  M)  could  not  create 
such  a  thing;  it  is  an  error  to  even  imagine  that  It 
could.  Mind  with  a  big  M  is  just  the  same  as  mind 
with  a  small  one ;   only  it  begins  with  a  big  M. 

5.  In  spite  of  what  has  just  been  stated,  there  is  a 
kind  of  mind  which  does  exist.  It  is  called  "  mortal 
mind."  It  must  exist,  for  it  makes  errors ;  which  it 
could  not  make  if  it  did  not  exist. 

6.  Of  course  there  is  no  such  thing  as  "  matter." 
It  is  simply  an  ''  error  of  mortal  mind." 

7.  As  matter  does  not  exist,  there  can  be  nothing 
really  the  matter  with  it.  Sickness  and  death  are, 
cf  course,  also  "  errors  of  mortal  mind." 


21 6        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

8.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  sin.  It  is  a  great 
error  to  think  so,  even  for  a  moment.  Of  course 
"Mind"  (with  a  big  M)  cannot  sin;  neither  can 
"mind"  (with  a  small  m)  do  so,  for  it  is  all  the 
same  as  "  Mind  "  (with  a  big  one).  Not  even  "  mor- 
tal mind  "  can  sin ;  it  can  only  make  ''  errors,"  and  of 
course  is  not  to  blame  for  them. 

9.  What  Christ  came  for  was  to  get  rid  of  "  mortal 
mind  "  and  all  its  errors.  The  worst  of  all  was  the 
one  about  "  sickness."  The  only  way  to  get  rid  of 
them,  and  of  ''  mortal  mind  "  itself,  is  to  study  "  Chris- 
tian Science."  But  Christ  Himself  had  only  studied 
this  noble  science  very  superficially.  Mrs.  Eddy  was 
the  first  one  who  really  got  a  good  grip  on  it.  It  is 
more  correctly  called  '' Eddian  Science;"  and  would 
have  been  so-called,  only  that  she  was  so  humble,  and 
also  thought  it  would  sell  better  under  Christ's  name. 

10.  ''  Eddian  Science  "  is  not  a  gospel  for  the  poor, 
like  that  of  Christ,  but  only  for  those  who  can  afiford 
to  pay  for  it.  It  can  only  be  learned  from  her  own 
book,  which  you  have  to  buy;  you  can't  learn  it 
thoroughly  by  borrowing  the  book.  N.B. — The  last 
of  these  ten  points  is  far  the  most  important.  If  one 
is  a  little  shaky  on  some  of  the  others,  it  doesn't  make 
so  much  diiTerence.  But  if  one  doesn't  observe  this 
one  strictly,  one  is  liable  to  be  excommunicated. 

We  must  pass  on  now  to  her  very  remarkable 

"  Key  to  the  Scriptures." 

This  title  certainly  is  calculated  to  excite  great  ex- 
pectations. Others,  before  Mrs.  Eddy,  had  put  out 
similar  works  or,  at  any  rate,  works  similar  to  what 
one  would  suppose  this  to  be.  The  learned  "  Cornelius 
a  Lapide  "  has  supplied  us  with  a  commentary  on  the 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       217 

Scriptures,  giving  the  actual  text  of  the  books  con- 
tained in  them,  accompanied  by  most  copious  notes 
and  explanations,  which  are  of  great  value  to  all  stu- 
dents of  the  sacred  volumes.  This  is,  of  course,  a 
work  which  is  much  more  voluminous  than  the  Scrip- 
tures themselves ;  one  of  those  which,  like  that  of  the 
great  theologian  Suarez,  makes  us  wonder  how  in  the 
world  anyone  could  possibly  have  had  time  even  for 
the  manual  labor  required  for  it  in  the  very  longest  life. 
And  there  are  plenty  of  others,  Protestant  as  well  as 
Catholic,  which  are  of  that  class,  though  perhaps  none 
quite  so  extensive.  The  Heavenly  Arcana  of  Emanuel 
Swedenborg  is  perhaps  the  one  which  seems  to  be 
more  like  than  any  other  to  that  which  we  had  a 
right  to  expect  from  Mrs.  Eddy.  It  is  a  work  of  great 
ability,  and  has  also  a  similar  claim  on  our  attention 
to  what  she  has  written;  for  Swedenborg  also  was 
supposed  by  himself  and  his  followers  to  have  a  super- 
natural illumination  which  would  make  his  teachings  of 
incomparably  more  weight  than  his  natural  ability, 
great  as  it  was,  could  possibly  claim  for  them. 

It  is  indeed  evident,  at  the  first  glance,  that  Mrs. 
Eddy's  "  Key  "  was  not  intended  to  be,  in  point  of  size, 
anything  like  those  which  have  just  been  mentioned, 
or  indeed  of  quite  the  same  character.  And  of  course 
one  does  not  expect  a  key  to  be  as  big  as  the  door 
which  it  locks  or  unlocks.  But  one  does  expect  that 
it  is  going  to  be  of  practical  use  for  the  whole  door, 
not  merely  for  a  small  part  of  it ;  or  that  if  it  is  a 
key  for  a  book,  as  in  this  case,  that  there  it  will 
furnish  some  general  principles  which  can  be  applied 
to  all  parts  of  the  book,  to  make  all  better  understood. 
As  there  are  only  seventy-six  of  her  pages  in  it,  it 
would  be  admirably  convenient  and   valuable  if  this 


2i8        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

expectation  were  to  be  realized,  and  all  the  better  for 
being  so  nice  and  small. 

We  have  thrown  out  some  hints  in  the  course  of 
the  remarks  made  on  the  main  portion  of  Science  and 
Health,  to  which  this  "  Key  to  the  Scriptures  "  is  ap- 
pended, that  any  such  expectations  will  hardly  be 
gratified.  Let  us  now  just  take  a  good  square  look  at 
the  ''  Key." 

If  we  do  so,  we  may  (perhaps,  if  not  as  yet 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  works  of  Prof.  Eddy)  be 
astonished  to  find  that  this  "  Key  to  the  Scriptures  " 
is  not  what  we  would  suppose  it  to  be  at  all  when  we 
get  beyond  the  title.  The  only  Scriptures  on  which 
any  comment  whatever  is  made  are  the  first  four  chap- 
ters of  the  book  of  Genesis,  and  then,  by  a  sudden  leap, 
the  twelfth  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse  (or  Revela- 
tion), and  a  few  scattered  verses  from  the  twenty- 
first  chapter  of  the  same.  And  even  on  these  the 
only  comment  made,  and  the  only  notice  taken  of  them, 
is  in  order  to  show  that  they  do  not  mean  what  they 
seem  to  the  unbiased  mind  to  mean  very  plainly,  but  are 
simply  dragged  in  to  serve  for  notes,  as  it  were,  to  the 
far  more  fully  inspired  book.  Science  and  Health.  To 
them,  we  don't  know  just  why,  one  of  the  Psalms — 
the  twenty-third  in  the  King  James  version — is  added. 
This  appears,  however,  to  be  in  order  to  put  the  word 
"  Love  "  in  capitals,  in  place  of  "  The  Lord,"  and  the 
"  He,"  subsequently  referring  to  Him. 

As  to  the  chapters  of  Genesis,  they  are  evidently 
needed  for  the  use  of  Bible  readers  in  general,  that 
they  may  not  be  deluded  by  the  idea  that  God  created, 
or  could  create,  anything  at  all.  That  idea  would, 
of  course,  be  fatal  to  the  fundamental  Eddian  doctrine 
that  there  cannot  be  anything  in  the  universe  except 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       219 

"  Mind."  Anything  in  the  Scriptures  which  seems  to 
be  inconsistent  with  this  is  simply  "  the  history  of  the 
untrue  image  of  God,  named  a  sinful  mortal." 
Strangely,  the  writer  of  this  book  of  Genesis,  though 
Mrs.  Eddy  confesses  that  the  Scriptures  are  inspired 
and  ''  very  sacred,"  does  not  seem  to  have  suspected 
at  all  that  it  was  anything  at  all  but  truth  that  he  was 
writing;  Mrs.  Eddy  lays  the  blame  of  its  plain  state-  ^ 
ments  of  what,  according  to  "  Science,"  is  false,  on  the 
translators,  who,  she  says,  "  entertained  a  false  sense 
of  being."  But  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  translators, 
who  had  far  more  reverence  for  the  Scriptures  than 
she  had  and  were  far  better  linguists  than  she,  just 
translated  correctly  what  they  saw  before  them. 

She  can't  be  allowed  to  get  out  of  her  difficulty  in 
that  way,  by  charging  the  blame  on  the  "  translators." 
Of  course  she  can,  if  she  wishes,  hold  that  the  original 
writer  did  not  know  what  he  was  writing  or  had  writ- 
ten. And  why  not  say  at  once  that  even  he  himself 
"  entertained  a  false  sense  of  being ; "  and  that 
"  Mind  "  Itself,  which  inspired  him  to  write  what  he 
did,  was  quite  willing  that  he  should  entertain  this 
false  sense  and  did  not  trouble  him  about  it,  knowing, 
of  course,  that  Mrs.  Eddy  would  clear  it  up  in  due 
time.  It  does  seem  strange  that  "  Mind  "  or  "  Love," 
should  allow  "  mortal  mind  "  to  be  so  fatally  mistaken, 
when  the  error  could  so  easily  have  been  avoided. 
But  nothing  seems  strange  to  Mrs.  Eddy  or  her  ''scien- 
tists," which  is  in  favor  of  her  fads. 

The  other  reason,  of  course,  which  is  needed  on 
account  of  these  fads,  for  the  incautious  reader  of 
these  first  four  chapters,  is  that  they  must  not  be 
allowed  to  deceive  anyone  who  may  still  be  so  wicked 
or  stupid  as  to  believe  that  our  first  parents,  Adam 


220        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

and  Eve,  committed  any  sin  of  disobedience  to  God. 
/  The  whole  account  of  the  Fall  is  a  "  myth,"  she  says, 
I  anyway;  it  is  "  a  history  of  error,  a  dream  narrative." 
\  As  for  sin,  of  course,  if  we  are  to  believe  her,  it 
does  not  exist,  and  never  did;  there  never  was,  can't 
be  now,  and  never  can  be  such  thing.  God,  as  she 
would  have  us  believe  in  telling  us  this  dream  story  of 
the  Fall,  was  treating  us  as  we  sometimes  treat  chil- 
dren when  we  say  to  them  "  once  upon  a  time,"  etc. 
Perhaps  it  may  be  doubted  whether  it  is  quite  right 
to  tell  these  stories,  even  to  children,  but  probably  we 
may  be  justified  by  believing  that  they  do  not  take  them 
to  be  real  accounts  of  fact,  much  more  than  we  take 
the  ordinary  novel  to  be  so.  But  here  we  find  God, 
"  Mind,  Truth,  and  Love,"  to  be  palming  off  on  us  a 
story  which  He  knows  Ave  will  take  as  a  record  of 
fact,  and  which  will  make  us  (according  to  ]\Irs. 
Eddy)  to  fall  into  most  dangerous  errors;  and  not 
correcting  our  false  impressions  about  it  for  several 
thousand  years;  and  then  only  by  a  really  ignorant 
woman,  whom  most  people  would  hardly  take  seriously. 
Of  course,  if  she  held  that  the  story  was  simply  one 
got  up  by  "  mortal  mind,"  we  would  only  be  surprised 
that  God  should  have  allowed  us  to  be  deceived  by  it ; 
and  if  she  did  not  believe  in  God  at  all  (it  sometimes 
seems  as  if  she  didn't)  there  would  be  nothing  to  be 
surprised  at,  at  all.  But  no ;  she  takes  the  story  as 
being  Divinely  inspired. 

She  makes  a  remark  on  Genesis  iii.  ii,  12,  which 
really  fits  her  own  exactly.  ''  Here,"  she  says,  ''  there 
is  an  attempt  to  trace  all  human  errors  directly  or 
indirectly,  to  God  or  good,  as  if  He  were  the  creator 
of  evil."  This  hits  the  nail  right  squarely  on  the 
head. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       221 

There  is  one  idea  which  runs  right  through  this 
"  Key,"  as  through  all  the  rest  of  her  book,  which 
really  is  very  hard  to  account  for.  It  is,  more  than 
any  other,  the  "  straw  man  "  to  whom  we  have  so 
often  had  occasion  to  allude.  It  is  the  "  belief " 
(which  must,  as  we  suppose,  have  been  prevalent 
among  those  whom  she  had  happened  to  meet)  "  in 
material  life  and  intelligence,"  which  she  says,  "  is 
growing  worse  at  every  step."  It  is  one  which  the  great 
majority  of  Christians  never  even  heard  of.  But  we 
have  said,  perhaps,  enough  about  it  already.  "  This  is 
the  error,"  she  says,  "that  mortal  man  starts  materially, 
that  non-intelligence  becomes  intelligence."  One  little 
sentence,  which  she  seems  to  think  will  knock  the 
"inspired  writer"  thoroughly  out,  is  worth  quoting: 
"  If,  in  the  beginning,"  she  asks,  '*  man's  body 
originates  in  non-intelligent  dust,  and  mind  was  after- 
Vv'ards  put  into  body  by  the  Creator,  why  is  not  this 
divine  order  still  maintained  by  God  in  perpetuating 
the  species  ?  " 

Well,  that  belief  of  mind  being  afterward  put  into 
body,  has  been  maintained,  and  may  be  by  some  even 
at  the  present  day.  But  it  is  generally  recognized  by 
Christians  now  that  the  putting  of  mind  into  body 
does  occur  at  the  very  earliest  moment,  so  .that  abor- 
tion, from  that  very  moment,  becomes  simply  murder. 

But  the  astonishing  and  incomprehensible  thing  is 
that  this  ignorant  woman  should  presume  to  question 
the  Almighty  as  to  why  or  how  He  dares  to  change 
anything  in  His  "  divine  order,"  at  any  rate  without 
asking  her  permission.  "  Who  will  say,"  she  proceeds, 
that  '*  minerals,  vegetables,  and  animals  have  a  propa- 
gating property  of  their  own?"  \Yq\\,  a  good  many 
people   will   and   do    say    that   about   vegetables    and 


222        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

animals ;  and  the  most  orthodox  Christian,  who  really 
believes  that  God  is  almighty,  and  not  under  the  orders 
of  Mrs.  Eddy,  will  believe  and  say  that  God  can  and 
does  give  that  power,  under  His  own  direction,  to 
vegetables  and  animals,  just  as  easily  as  He  gives  the 
power  of  gravitational  attraction,  and  many  others, 
even  to  minerals. 

But  as  she  seems  to  have  entertained  a  suspicion 
that  some  might  actually  hold  these  outrageous  views, 
she  gets  quite  furious,  and  indignantly  asks :  "  Who 
dares  to  say  either  that  God  is  in  matter  or  that  matter 
exists  w  ithout  God  ?  "  Well,  no  one  of  course,  who 
is  in  terror  of  being  excommunicated  as  not  a  genuine 
Scientist.  That  would  be  almost  as  bad  as  not  buying 
her  book,  or  not  promoting  the  sale  of  it.  But  she 
lumps  two  things  together  which  are  as  far  apart  as 
the  poles.  Every  reasonable  person  believes  that  God, 
that  is  to  say  His  power,  is  in  matter.  No  reasonable 
person,  whatever,  believes  that  matter  exists  without 
God. 

There  is  one  passage  or  "  word  "  in  this  *'  Key,"  that 
is  so  rich  that  we  must  really  quote  it  in  full :  "  Ac- 
cording to  this  narrative  "  (that  of  the  formation  of 
woman)  she  says,  "  surgery  was  first  performed  men- 
tally and  without  instruments ;  and  this  may  be  a  use- 
ful hint  to  the  medical  faculty.  Later  in  human  his- 
tory, when  the  forbidden  fruit  was  bringing  forth  fruit 
of  its  own  kind,  there  came  a  suggestion  of  change  in 
the  modus  operandi — the  man  should  be  born  of  woman, 
not  woman  again  taken  from  man.  It  came  about, 
also,  that  instruments  were  needed  to  assist  the  birth 
of  mortals.  The  first  system  of  suggestive  obstetrics  has 
changed.  Another  change  will  come  as  to  the  nature 
and  origin  of  man,  and  this   revelation  will   destroy 


TJic  Truth  About  Christian  Science       223 

the  dream  of  existence,  reinstate  reality,  usher  in 
Science  and  the  glorious  fact  of  creation,  that  both 
man  and  woman  proceed  from  God  and  are  His 
eternal  children,  belonging  to  no  lesser  parent." 

We  should  have  thought  that  this  was  a  sort  of 
labored  joke,  if  we  had  not  observed  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
never  jokes,  but  is  always  in  dead  earnest.  We  have 
indeed  heard  that  no  Christian  Scientist  can  even  see 
a  joke.  Probably  it  is  forbidden  in  their  rules,  some- 
where, though  it  doesn't  seem  to  be  laid  down  in 
Science  and  Health.  This,  at  any  rate,  really  is  a  joke, 
even  if  the  grave  and  learned  Professor  did  not  mean 
it  as  such ;  almost  as  good  as  the  one  we  came  across 
not  long  ago  about  the  lobster  and  his  claw. 

But  here,  quite  near  to  it,  is  something  which  is 
very  far  from  being  a  joke.  "  That  Adam,"  she  says, 
"  gave  the  name  and  nature  of  animals,  is  solely 
mythological  and  material."  This  is  a  deliberate  per- 
version of  Scripture,  made  in  order  to  make  it  tell  a 
lie.  Scripture  only  says  that  the  animals  were  named 
by  Adam.  But  this  woman  slips  in  the  words  "  and 
nature  "  after  "  the  name  "  just  to  prove  that  Scripture 
is  solely  "  mythologica. ;  "  that  is  to  say,  that  we  are 
not  to  take  it  seriously,  when  it  doesn't  s^Mt  Mrs. 
Eddy.  Oh,  this  kind  of  talk  is  simply  preposterous. 
When  I  give  a  dog  a  name,  am  I  supposed  to  change 
his  nature  ?  Even  when  I  call  Mrs.  Eddy  a  Professor, 
that  does  not  make  her  so.  But  that  the  names  given 
to  animals  by  Adam  had  any  significance  or  connection 
with  their  nature,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose. 

As  another  little  slap  at  taking  Scripture  seriously, 
Mrs.  Eddy  remarks  that  "  the  purpose  of  the  Hebrew 
allegory,  representing  error  as  assuming  a  divine 
character,  is  to  teach  mortals  never  to  believe  (what 


224        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

Mrs.  Eddy  says  is)  a  lie,"  We  have  had  to  put  in 
the  words  in  parenthesis,  to  make  it  clear  what  she 
really  means. 

It  is  pretty  hard  to  have  patience  with  her  un- 
blushing and  unscrupulous  misrepresentations  of  fact, 
made  in  order  to  get  some  credit  for  her  absurd  and 
empty  "  science."  For  example,  she  says  that  "  it  is 
only  mortal  man,  and  not  the  real  man,  who  dies." 
She  wants  to  give  the  impression  that  the  regular 
Christian  teaching  is  that  the  soul  of  man  is  destroyed 
when  it  leaves  the  body,  and  to  claim  as  a  special 
doctrine  of  Christian  Science  that  it  does  not.  But 
she  does  this  sort  of  thing  continually.  It  is  time 
for  us  to  speak  a  little  more  plainly  about  this  sort  of 
thing  than,  perhaps,  wx  have  spoken  before. 

Mrs.  Eddy  knew,  when  she  wrote  this  book,  that 
orthodox  Christians  teach  and  believe  that  man  is  not 
simply  material  or  produced  by  matter ;  that  he  is 
created  by  the  Almighty  to  know  Him,  love  Him,  and 
serve  Him  in  this  world,  and  to  have  his  true  joy  and 
happiness  in  that  knowledge,  love  and  service  in  this 
world,  and  if  faithful  unto  death  in  these,  to  have  this 
joy  and  happiness  increased  inconceivably  after  death. 
She  knew  that  all  Christians  regard  man  as  immortal, 
just  as  truly  as  she  ever  thought  of  doing.  She  knew 
all  this  because  she  had  been  taught  it  by  her  own 
good  parents ;  she  had  never  heard  from  them  or  from 
any  other  Christian  a  single  word  to  the  contrary. 

But  because  it  would  suit  better  her  purpose  of  get- 
ting up  a  new  theory  about  "healing  the  sick,"  she  wants 
to  make  her  students  and  her  readers  in  general  be- 
lieve that  we  are  simply  materialists ;  that  we  regard 
matter  as  being  the  origin  of  all  phenomena,  and 
even   that   we   believe   God   to   be   a   merely  material 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       225 

being;  and  that  its  laws,  instead  of  being  the  expres- 
sion of  His  holy  Will  and  Wisdom,  are,  in  our  opinion, 
necessary  and  immutable.  Because  we  refuse  to  regard 
it  or  anything  else  that  He  has  created  as  essentially 
bad  and  unworthy  to  exist,  she  insists  that  we  make 
it  self-existent ;  and  because  we  will  not  put ''  immortal 
man  "  as  having  a  being  identical  with  that  of  God, 
and  as  having  no  intelligence  of  life  given  to  him  by 
his  Creator,  but  as  having  been  from  all  eternity  a 
mere  reflection  of  God,  or,  if  you  will,  an  eternal 
emanation  from  Him,  she  pretends  that  we  do  not  be- 
lieve in  his  immortality  at  all. 

It  is  possible,  indeed  even  probable,  that  this  pretender 
lo  science  had  lost  faith  in  real  Christianity,  and  that 
she  had  a  very  imperfect  knowledge  of  even  what  she 
had  learned  about  it ;  but  she  did  know  that  no 
Christian  denomination  holds  or  teaches  what  she 
calumniously  pretends  that  all  Christians  do.  She  had 
not  a  very  brilliant  intellect,  but  she  was  not  stupid 
enough  to  believe  her  own  lies.  And  of  course  that 
makes  them  absolutely  inexcusable. 

But  having  determined  on  this  programme  of  mis- 
representation of  the  known  truth,  she  unhesitatingly 
perseveres  in  it  to  the  end,  and  claims  a  patent  on  all 
that  true  religion  has  taught  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  as  if  she  were  the  discoverer  of  it,  in  order  to 
give  her  own  absurd  vagaries  the  benefit  of  its  pro- 
tection. After  getting  through  with  the  small  portion 
of  the  book  of  Genesis  which  she  thinks  can  be  made 
to  serve  her  purpose  of  misrepresentation,  she  indulges 
in  a  lucubration  on  things  in  general,  without  any  re- 
gard whatever  to  anything  except  her  own  false  no- 
tions, or  rather  the  false  notions  which  she  hopes  her 
**  students  "  can  be  induced  to  adopt. 


226       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

To  illustrate  more  fully  the  falsehood  which  is  the 
keynote  of  this  programme,  one  or  two  specimens  may 
be  quoted,  though  perhaps  enough  have  already  been 
given. 

For  one  instance  she  calmly  asserts:  "  Vertebrata, 
articulata,  mollusca,  and  radiata  are  mortal  and  material 
concepts  classified  and  are  supposed  to  possess  life  and 
mind."  Life  in  a  certain  sense,  yes ;  that  is,  that  God 
has  implanted  in  them  certain  powers,  and  laid  down 
certain  lavvS  or  methods  of  action,  which  He  could 
change  or  destroy  at  any  moment  if  He  should  so  will. 
But  as  to  "  mind,"  there  is  not,  as  she  would  try  to 
make  us  believe  on  her  word,  that  there  is  a  single 
person  who  has  any  notion  at  all,  that  any  of  the 
general  or  species  of  animal  life  which  she  names 
possess  "  mind  "  at  all.  To  say  or  to  imply  that  any- 
one whatever  supposes  that  they  have  it,  is  simply  a 
lie,  and  she  must  have  known  that  it  was,  when  she 
wrote  it. 

Then  again  :  "These  false  beliefs  will  disappear  when 
the  radiation  of  Spirit  destroys  forever  all  belief  in 
intelligent  matter."  But  no  one  whatever  has,  or  ever 
had,  any  "  belief  in  intelligent  matter,"  even  in  that 
small  portion  of  it  which  is  under  the  direct  control 
of  the  human  intelligent  mind.  If  she  had  found  any- 
one, as  she  could  have  easily  done  (for  anyone  what- 
ever would  do)  who  said  that  he  did  not  believe  in  in- 
telligent matter,  she  would  have  explained,  "  just  see 
what  progress  Christian  Science  is  making  even  among 
those  who  are  not  regularly  studying  it.  Just  see  how 
far  the  radiation  of  Spirit  has  reached  already !  " 

But  this  sort  of  thing  is  too  sickening  and  disgusting 
to  keep  on  indefinitely  in  quoting  examples  of  it.  And 
they  are  to  be  found  in  almost  every  paragraph.     She 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        227 

seems  to  have  gone  on  the  principle  that  If  she  threw 
enough  mud,  some  of  It  would  stick. 

There  Is  one  little  gem,  however,  which  may  be 
worth  while  to  mention,  to  relieve  the  monotony  of 
this  constant  and  persistent  falsehood.  "  It  is  related," 
she  tells  us,  ''  that  a  father  plunged  his  Infant  babe, 
only  a  few  hours  old,  into  the  water  for  several 
minutes,  and  repeated  this  operation  daily,  until  the 
child  could  remain  under  water  twenty  minutes,  moving 
and  playing  without  harm,  like  a  fish.  Parents  should 
remember  this,  and  learn  how  to  develop  their  children 
properly  on  dry  land." 

We  should  have  suspected  that  Mrs.  Eddy  herself 
intended  this  for  a  sort  of  irrelevant  joke,  if  we  did 
not  know  that  she  never  jokes.  As  for  the  "  moral  " 
drawn  from  this  cock-and-bull  story,  it  would  seem 
that  instead  of  the  parents  learning  by  it  how  to  de- 
velop their  children  on  dry  land,  they  would,  on  the 
contrary,  endeavor  to  teach  them  all  this  very  valuable 
and  practical  accomplishment  as  early  as  possible. 

Well,  let  us  go  on  now  to  her  absurd 

Key  to  the  Apocalypse. 

We  see,  In  starting  on  this,  why  It  does  not  begin 
at  the  beginning  of  the  book,  and  why  It  is  practically 
restricted  to  one  chapter  of  it.  She  had  already  told 
us  In  the  part  about  Genesis. 

"  Genesis  and  the  Apocalypse,"  she  there  remarked, 
"  seem  more  obscure  than  other  portions  of  the  Scrip- 
ture, because  they  cannot  possibly  be  interpreted  from 
a  material  standpoint."  This  seems  as  If  she  must 
have  meant  from  a  "  Christian  Science  "  standpoint. 
She  says,  it  is  true,  that  *'  to  the  author  they  are 
transparent,  for  they  contain  the  deep  divinity  of  the 


228        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

Bible."  If  they  were,  all  through,  so  "  transparent," 
why  did  she  keep  this  "  deep  divinity  "  all  to  herself, 
instead  of  giving  us  a  little  look  at  it?  Oh,  we  see. 
It  must  have  been  because  the  divinity  was  too  deep 
for  us,  so  we  have  to  be  contented  with  the  shallow 
divinity  of  Christian  Science,  which  is  given  to  us  in 
the  parts  which  she  condescends  to  explain.  Or  wait 
a  minute.  We  begin  to  see  the  point  of  this  last  story 
about  the  baby.  She  must  have  been  the  baby  herself, 
and  have  been  trained  in  infancy  to  stay  in  the  trans- 
parent water  for  twenty  minutes,  and  afterward 
learned  to  manage  it  for  any  length  of  time.  But  she 
does  not  think  it  prudent  to  try  any  such  training  on 
the  rest  of  us ;  we  had  better,  as  she  says,  be  kept 
on  dry  land. 

So  she  begins  on  the  Apocalypse  with  the  first 
shallow  water  she  finds  in  it,  namely  the  one  which 
tells  about  the  little  book,  called  Science  and  Health, 
which  is  easy  for  us  to  swallow  right  down,  if  we  will 
only  make  a  little  efifort.  We  have  already  had  oc- 
casion to  speak  of  this  vision  of  St.  John,  in  which 
Eddian  Science  was  so  clearly  foretold,  so  we  need 
not  dwell  on  it  now.  This  was  in  the  tenth  chapter; 
now  she  goes  on  to  the  twelfth,  which  tells  us  about 
the  "  woman  clothed  with  the  sun." 

It  is  as  plain  as  a  pike-stafif  that  the  "  scientific  " 
explanation  of  this  is  that  this  woman  was  Mrs.  Eddy 
herself.  She  does  not  want  to  say  so  right  out,  but 
she  expects  us,  of  course,  to  read  between  the  lines. 
"  The  Revelator,"  she  tells  us,  "  saw  also  the  spiritual 
ideal  of  a  "  woman  clothed  in  light,  a  bride  coming 
down  from  heaven,  wedded  to  the  Lamb  of  Love." 
Mrs.  Eddy  is  the  spiritual  idea ;  she  is  the  bride.  She 
thinks  it  will  look  better  to  pass  it  on  to  Christ;   but 


The  Truth  About  Chvisilan  Science,       22g 

anyone  can  see  that  it  applies  to  her  much  better.  Be- 
sides, He  is  called  in  the  Gospels  the  Bridegroom,  and 
everyone  knows  that  in  a  wedding  the  groom  cuts  a 
small  figure  compared  with  the  bride.  Just  as  Christ 
was  a  very  imperfect  student  of  Science,  which  was 
only  fully  understood  by  Airs.  Eddy. 

"  As  Elias,"  she  says,  '*  represented  the  idea  of  the 
fatherhood  of  God,  which  Jesus  afterwards  mani- 
fested, so  the  Revelator  completed  the  figure  with 
woman,  typifying  the  spiritual  idea  of  God's  mother- 
hood." But,  of  course,  that  must  also  have  been  mani- 
fested in  somebody.  And  who  could  that  somebody  be 
but  Mrs.  Eddy?  Who  would  dare  to  say  it  was  some- 
body else,  or  that  it  had  not  yet  been  manifested,  now 
that  Divine  Science  has  been  fully  brought  to  light 
in  her  book.  Science  and  Health  f  That  book  contains 
the  final  word  of  Mind  to  mortal  man.  It  is,  more- 
over, far  ahead  of  the  Gospel,  for  no  one,  we  believe, 
is  allowed  to  make  any  comments  on  it,  at  any  rate  so 
far  as  she  can  prevent  such  a  thing  from  being  done. 
For  her  Precursor,  she  seems  to  have  selected  St. 
John  the  Apostle,  so  far  as  we  can  make  out. 

As  for  the  serpent  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  which, 
we  are  told,  "  from  Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse  typifies 
sickness  and  death,"  as  well  as  other  evils  (though  just 
where  we  are  not  told),  he  is  perpetually  close  upon 
the  heel  of  harmony,  and  pursues  with  hatred  the 
spiritual  idea.  He  also  of  course  typifies  "  mortal 
mind."  In  the  Apocalypse  he  seems  to  have  grown 
amazingly,  and  becomes  a  "  great  red  dragon,"  which 
poor  Mrs.  Eddy  has  to  tackle,  as  no  one  previously, 
even  Christ  Himself,  was  able  to  prevent  his  growing 
to  that  size.  Of  course,  St.  John,  the  "  Revelator  "  or 
Precursor,  did  not  mean  that  he  had  got  to  that  size 


J30        ^riic  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

when  St.  John  wrote  the  Apocalypse,  but  that  he  would 
be  when  Mrs.  Eddy  was  to  appear  and  knock  him  out. 

But  what,  more  precisely,  does  this  red  dragon 
typify  or  symbolize?  We  learn  from  the  "Key"  in 
another  place,  that  he  symbolizes  ''  the  belief  "  which 
Prof.  Eddy  has  got  on  the  brain,  but  which  can 
l:ardly  be  found  elsewhere,  ''  that  substance,  life,  and 
intelligence  can  be  material."  In  other  words  he  is  a 
sort  of  straw  dragon,  like  the  straw  man,  which  she 
so  often  fights.  We  can't  quite  see,  though,  how  she 
imagines  him  to  have  got  so  big  in  these  recent  times. 
No  sensible  person,  at  any  rate  at  present,  believes  in- 
telligence to  be  material,  and  no  religious  person  has 
any  idea  that  matter  is  the  basis  of  substance  or 
life. 

The  dragon's  ten  horns,  as  we  learn  from  the  same 
infallible  authority,  '*  typify  the  belief  that  matter  has 
power  of  its  own ;"  but  no  one  who  believes  in  God 
at  all  has  any  such  idea  as  that.  Mrs.  Eddy,  however, 
never  knew  very  much  about  Christianity,  and  seems 
to  have  soon  forgotten  what  little  she  had  learned. 

These  horns,  she  tells  us,  also  typify  the  belief  that 
**  by  means  of  an  evil  mind  in  matter  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments can  be  broken."  \\q  can't  quite  get  rid  of 
the  belief  that  the  Commandments  not  only  can  be,  but 
that  they  sometimes  have  been  broken,  and  even  by 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself;  since  one  of  them  is  "  Thou  shalt 
not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor."  But  we 
never  came  across  the  idea  that  an  evil  mind  must  be 
in  matter,  for  this  breaking  to  be  done.  We  had  the 
impression  that  an  evil  mind  was  enough,  all  by  itself. 
But  perhaps  Mrs.  Eddy  thinks  that  to  break  them,  one 
needs  some  "  matter "  to  do  it  with ;  so  that  she  is 
fairly  safe,  as  long  as  she  does  not  believe  that  there 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science        231 

is   any   such   thing;     for   then   it   is   no   matter   what 
she  does. 

Well,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  bother  any  longer  with 
this  absurd  "  Key."  Of  course  it  is  vain  to  show  its 
absurdities  up  to  those  who  have  made  up  their  minds 
to  take  Mrs.  Eddy  as  the  great  prophet,  for  whom  the 
world  has  been  waiting  all  this  time;  but  those  who 
have  not  yet  surrendered  their  reason  to  her  delusions 
may  perhaps  be  warned  against  doing  so  while  there 
is  yet  time;  and  it  would  seem  that  enough  has  been 
already  said  for  that  purpose. 

In  concluding  this  examination  of  what  may  be 
called  the  theoretical  part  of  the  book,  which  probably 
has  not  been  very  attentively  studied  even  by  its  most 
thorough  ''  students,"  it  seems  hardly  necessary  to  say 
much  about  what  the  author  gives  us  for  a  "  glossary  " 
to  it.  Still,  there  are  some  points  or  definitions  in 
it  which  may  show  up  her  defiance  of  Scripture 
and  the  old  solid  Christian  faith  even  more  plainly. 

It  is  strange  to  observe  the  malice  which  she  has 
accumulated  against  poor  Adam  our  first  parent,  and 
the  vials  of  wrath  which  she  pours  forth  on  his  de- 
voted head  in  this  ''  glossary."  Here  is  the  definition 
of  him  in  Eddian  Science. 

The  meaning  of  Adam,  it  seems,  is  "  Error ;  a 
falsity ;  the  belief  in  'original  sin,'  sickness,  and  death ; 
evil ;  the  opposite  of  good — of  God  and  His  creation ; 
a  curse  ;  a  belief  in  intelligent  matter  "  (the  irrepressible 
straw  man  again),  "  finiteness,  and  mortality;  'dust  to 
dust;'  red  sandstone"  (why  such  a  special  spite 
against  this,  any  more  than  other  kinds  of  stone?) 
"  nothingness ;  the  first  god  of  mythology,  not  God's 
man,  who  represents  the  one  God,  and  is  His  image 
and  likeness  "  (though  that  is  precisely  what  the  Scrip- 


232        Tlic  Truih  About  Christian  Science 

ture  tells  us  Adam  was)  ;  ''  the  opposite  of  Spirit  and 
His  creations  "  (though  the  Scripture  expressly  tells 
us  that  God  created  him)  ;  "that  which  is  not  the  image 
and  likeness  of  good,  but  a  material  belief,  opposed  to 
the  one  Mind,  or  Spirit."  Well,  she  goes  on  with  more 
of  the  same  blasphemous  raving,  but  this  is  perhaps 
enough;  but  there  is  a  little  group  of  straw  men 
at  the  end,  at  which  she  charges  full  tilt,  like  Don 
Quixote  against  the  windmills. 

''  The  name  Adam,"  she  says  in  her  blind  and  un- 
reasoning fury,  "  represents  the  false  supposition " 
(made  by  nobody)  "  that  Life  is  not  eternal,  but  has 
beginning  and  end ;  that  the  infinite  enters  the  finite  " 
(repeating  her  materialistic  and  spatial  ideas,  which 
she  simply  cannot  shake  off)  ;  "  that  intelligence  enters 
into  non-intelligence,  and  that  Soul  dwells  in  material 
sense;  that  immortal  Mind  results  in  matter,  and 
matter  in  mortal  mind ;  that  the  one  God  and  creator 
entered  what  He  created,  and  then  disappeared  in  the 
atheism  of  matter."  One  can  just  see  her  when  writ- 
ing this  insane  paragraph,  grinding  and  gnashing  her 
teeth  at  her  own  wild  imaginations.  Well  this  is 
enough  to  effectually  prevent,  it  would  seem,  anyone 
who  has  any  knowledge  of  real  Christian  teaching 
from  reading  any  further. 

It  is  amusing,  however,  to  find  that  the  "  serpent  " 
does  not  catch  it  quite  so  badly  as  "  Adam."  "  The 
first  audible  claim,"  we  are  told,  "  that  God  was  not 
omnipotent."  But  if  this  is  enough  to  constitute  a 
''  serpent,"  it  would  seem  that  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  must 
be  a  kind  of  serpent,  as  she  tells  us  that  God  is  not 
omnipotent ;  not  even  powerful  enough  to  create  any- 
thing outside  of  Himself. 

It  is  also  a  funny  departure  from  the  usual  practice 


TJic  Truth  About  Christian  Science       233 

of  glossaries  or  dictionaries  to  find  the  same  word 
defined  in  two  entirely  different  ways.  "  Believing," 
for  instance,  is  defined  as  "  firmness  and  constancy," 
and  also  as  "  moral  thoughts,  illusion."  One  would 
think  that  the  latter  definition  would  suffice ;  for  any 
sort  of  believing  is,  we  have  understood,  entirely  in- 
consistent with  Christian  Science.  A  Christian  or 
"  Eddian  "  Scientist  does  not  believe ;  he  knows  every- 
thing. He  isn't  omnipotent,  of  course,  for  we  are 
distinctly  told  that  even  "  Mind  "  is  not  that,  as  we 
have  just  noted ;  but  he  is  omiscient,  at  any  rate ; 
he  is  all  right,  as  far  as  ''  knowing  "  is  concerned. 

Well,  it  would  be  too  tedious  to  take  up  all  these 
funny  definitions,  or  even  any  considerable  number  of 
them.  There  are  some  few  which  have  a  glimmering 
of  reason  or  truth  in  them,  but  the  great  majority  of 
them  are  just  of  the  same  kind  as  the  above.  They 
appeal  to  a  sense  of  humor,  and  are  fine  illustrations 
of  wild  Eddian  vagaries ;  as  anyone  can  see  at  a 
glance ;  but  then  we  must  remember  that  they  are  not 
meant  for  the  public,  but  for  the  kind  people  that 
are  built  on  those  lines.  There  is  quite  a  temptation 
for  the  rest  of  us  to  amuse  ourselves  with  them  to  a 
moderate  extent,  for  they  really  are  as  good  as  a 
farce ;  but  we  can't  keep  up  the  farce  all  the  time,  as 
a  real  genuine  Eddian  does.' 

So  at  last  we  can  pass  to  the  final  chapter,  which 
is  entitled 

CHAPTER  XVni. 

Fruitage. 

Surely  it  is  about  time,  after  all  the  flowerage  with 
which  the  book  so  far  has  been  filled,  to  get  to  some 
fruitage.     One  is  naturally  anxious  to  know  what  it 


234        ^^^^  Truth  About  Chrisiian  Science 

is  going  to  be.  It  is  evidently  intended  to  give  prac- 
tical proofs  of  the  efficacy  of  Eddian  Science,  or  to 
show  to  us  the  glorious  fruits  that  are  gathered  by 
the  Eddian  tree.  And  we  find,  in  fact,  that  it  alleges 
quite  a  number  of  '*  cures ; "  of  "  healings  of  the 
sick,"  which  Eddian  students  have  accomplished. 

But  right  at  the  start,  a  weighty  consideration  un- 
avoidably suggests  itself  to  the  reader.  For  these 
cures  are  given  as  being  cures  of  real  physical  and 
material  ailments  or  diseases.  But  if  we  have  learned 
anything  from  the  whole  gospel  of  the  ''  Science,"  it 
is  that  there  are  no  such  diseases ;  that  there  are  merely 
errors  or  illusions  of  "  mortal  mind."  In  other  words, 
these  diseases  were  merely  imaginary;  and  anyone 
who  thought  he  was  suffering  from  any  of  them  was 
merely  a  hypochondriac,  or,  as  the  French  say,  a 
nialade  imaginaire ;  there  was  nothing  really  the  mat- 
ter with  him  at  all.  He  had  a  more  vivid  imagination 
than  most  people  have  to  imagine  the  disease  and  by 
this  same  vivid  imagination  he  was  able  to  imagine 
that  it  was  no  longer  there. 

Well,  it  is  certainly  a  valuable  art  (or  science,  if  you 
will)  to  be  able  to  control  the  imagination  so  thor- 
oughly. But  it  isn't  ''  Eddian  "  Science.  You  can't 
say  that  there  was  not  and  could  not  have  been  any- 
thing really  the  matter,  and  then  triumphantly  assert 
that  there  really  ivas  something  the  matter,  and  prove 
by  the  testimony  of  the  material  senses  (which,  by  the 
way,  ^Irs.  Eddy  says  are  always  erroneous),  that  this 
something  really  was  cured.  If  you  feel  sure  that 
you  were  cured  by  Eddian  Science,  it  follows  that  you 
can't  possibly  believe  in  any  such  Science  for  the 
future.  Your  cure,  if  it  was  really  a  true  one,  knocks 
Eddyism  right  on  the  head. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       235 

Poor  Eddy  herself  got  you  into  this  scrape  by 
foolishly  and  needlessly  denying  the  reality  of  matter, 
and,  of  course,  of  all  material  disease.  If  she  had 
only  had  sense  enough  to  acknowledge  the  reality  of 
matter,  and  been  content  to  prove  the  control  of  mind 
(with  a  big  M  if  you  like)  over  it,  she  would  have 
been  all  right.  But  no ;  she  must  needs,  in  misguided 
zeal  for  her  nonsense,  put  her  foot  right  down  deep 
in  it,  away  up  to  the  knee ;  and  there  it  has  got  to 
stay.     Too  late  to  take  it  out  now. 

Let  us,  then,  proceed  to  take  a  look  at  some  of  the 
"  cures,"  but  remember,  please,  that  the  more  genuine 
they  seem  tO'  be,  the  more  thoroughly  Eddyism  is  re- 
futed by  them.  The  only  way  in  which  that  noble 
science  can  possibly  score  is  by  the  getting  rid  of 
some  "  error  of  mortal  mind."  The  patient  thought 
that  there  was  something  the  matter  with  him,  and 
finds  out  that  really  there  wasn't,  except  that  he  was 
mistaken;  he  was,  in  fact,  just  the  same  before  the 
"  cure  "  as  he  is  after  it.  Of  course  there  is  no  need 
to  get  testimony  to  a  thing  like  that.  The  cure  was 
simply  a  change  of  his  state  of  mind,  and  his  word 
is  quite  enough  for  that. 

To  make  it  clear,  however,  that  we  are  not  shutting 
our  eyes  to  evidence,  and  refusing  obstinately  from 
hatred  or  prejudice  to  look  at  the  cases,  let  us  take 
some  of  them  in  detail.  One  is  entitled  "  A  Case  of 
Mental  Surgery."  It  seems  to  have  been  furnished 
by  a  lady,  but  we  are  not  sure ;  indeed  in  some  ways 
it  looks  as  if  it  was  a  mere  man  who  was  the  suf- 
ferer, particularly,  because  of  the  office  work  of  which 
it  tells  us ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  lady  hypothesis  is 
the  more  probable,  and  we  shall  adopt  it.  It  tells 
us  that  **  in  May,  1902,  going  home  for  lunch,  on  a 


236       Tlie  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

bicycle,  I  was  thrown  from  the  wheel,  and  falling  on 
my  left  side  with  my  arm  under  my  head,  the  bone 
was  broken  about  half-way  between  the  shoulder  and 
the  elbow.  While  the  pain  was  intense,  I  lay  still  in 
the  dust,  declaring  the  truth,  and  denying  that  there 
could  be  a  break  or  accident  in  the  realm  of  divine 
Love,  until  a  gentleman  came  to  assist  me,  saying  he 
thought  I  had  been  stunned." 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  facts  thus  far  presented. 
It  really  seems  to  the  outsider  that  both  the  sufferer 
and  the  assisting  gentleman  w^ere  right  in  their  diag- 
nosis of  the  case;  the  form.er  on  theoretical  grounds, 
the  latter  on  those  of  observation.  No  examination 
seems  to  have  been  made,  of  either  a  professional  or 
amateur  character.  As  to  the  place  of  the  supposed 
fracture,  that  was  only  determined,  it  would  seem, 
from  the  pain  being  apparently  located  there. 

To  resume  the  narrative :  "  I  was  only  two  and  a 
half  blocks  from  home,  so  I  mounted  my  wheel  again, 
and  managed  to  reach  it." 

This  again  seems  to  confirm  the  diagnosis  thus  far 
made.  It  is,  perhaps,  true  that  an  expert  cycHst 
might  be  able  to  mount  a  wheel  w^ith  a  broken  arm,  so 
that  this  of  itself  is  not  absolutely  fatal  to  the  reality 
of  the  injury. 

On  her  getting  home,  the  scientific  character  of  the 
lady  came  out  very  strongly.  She  made  no  attempt 
to  fix  up  the  (imaginary)  arm  in  any  way,  but  simply 
asked  her  (imaginary)  little  boy  to  bring  our 
(imaginary)  textbook.  The  arm,  boy,  and  textbook, 
couldn't,  of  course,  have  been  composed  of  "  matter  " 
in  any  v^ay ;  for  matter,  as  all  scientists  know,  has  no 
real  existence. 

To  continue :  ''  He  "  (the  purely  spiritual  little  bo;  ) 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       2^y 

"  immediately  brought  Science  and  Health,  which  I 
read  for  about  ten  minutes,  when  all  pain  left." 

The  evidence,  so  far,  seems  to  the  wicked  scoffer 
to  be  quite  clear,  and  to  the  effect  that  there  was 
nothing  the  matter  but  a  slight  bruise,  which  ceased 
to  be  painful  after  a  few  minutes.  She  was  only 
"  about  a  half  an  hour  late  in  returning  to  the  office, 
this  being  my  only  loss  of  time  from  work." 

She  "  said  nothing  to  her  family  of  the  accident." 
But  some  friends  were  apparently  told  about  it  later, 
and  ''  claimed,"  on  good  grounds,  it  would  seem, 
"  that  the  arm  had  not  been  broken,  as  otherwise  it 
would  have  been  impossible  for  me  to  continue  my 
work  without  having  it  set,  and  carrying  it  in  a  sling 
until  the  bone  knit  together."  But,  of  course,  the 
patient,  being  a  real  scientist,  would  listen  to  no  such 
nonsense  as  having  "a  bone  knit  together;"  it  could 
no  more  knit  together  than  it  could  knit  a  stocking. 

But  at  last  one  of  her  friends  invited  her  to  visit 
the  office  of  a  physician  (not  a  metaphysician),  where 
they  were  experimenting  with  an  (imaginary)  X-ray 
machine.  "  The  physician  was  asked  to  examine  my 
left  arm  to  see  if  it  differed  from  the  ordinary.  On 
looking  through  it,  he  said,  'Yes,  it  has  been  broken, 
but  whoever  set  it  made  a  perfect  job  of  it,  and 
you  will  never  have  any  further  trouble  from  that 
break.'  " 

This  is  really  the  only  scrap  of  evidence  to  show 
that  the  arm  had  been  broken  at  all.  But  the  doctor, 
naturally,  did  not  want  to  doubt  the  lady's  word,  as 
to  what  had  been  the  case,  and  had  not  had  any  op- 
portunity to  look  at  the  arm  before.  On  being  asked 
if  he  could  tell  where  the  break  had  been,  he  ''  pointed 
out  the  place  as  being  slightly  thicker  at  that  point." 


238        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

For  all  that  he  could  tell,  it  might  have  always  been 
that  way. 

In  this  case,  then,  it  seems  as  if  Eddian  Science 
was  right  or  nearly  right.  There  was  not  much  the 
matter  to  begin  with,  and  what  little  was  the  matter 
could  well  afford  to  treat  surgery,  even  of  a  mental 
kind,  v/ith  proper  contempt.  It  was  a  case,  apparently, 
of  the  *'  kiss  the  place  and  make  it  well "  order, 
such  as  we  were  all  familiar  with  in  childhood. 

There  are  a  few  other  "  cases  "  which  seem  to  be 
somewhat  in  the  "  surgical "  order,  perhaps  the 
strongest  one  is  one  entitled  "  Fibroid  Tumor  Healed 
in  a  Few  Days."  The  patient  who  writes  about  this — 
apparently  another  lady — says,  to  begin  with : 

''  I  w^as  afflicted  with  a  fibroid  tumor  which  weighed 
not  less  than  fifty  pounds." 

It  is  not  explained  how  she  found  out  how  much  this 
tumor  weighed.  As  we  are  told  that  it  did  not  come 
out  all  at  once,  so  that  it  could  be  separately  weighed, 
as  it  might  have  been  if  removed  by  an  operation, 
there  seems  to  be  no  way  of  determining  this  inter- 
esting point,  unless  the  lady  was  weighed  before  she 
started  to  read  Science  and  Health,  and  again  after  the 
cure  was  completed.  It  is  not  stated  how  long  the  in- 
terval was  between  these  two  events ;  we  are  only  told 
that  the  tumor  "  began  to  disappear  at  once."  But  when 
did  it  finish  disappearing?  It  strikes  us  that  this  is 
rather  an  important  point.  And  then  how  was  it  as- 
certained that  the  tumor  was  "  fibroid  ?  "  \Yq  are 
not  told  that  any  doctor  examined  it ;  nothing  is  said 
even  about  an  X-ray  in  this  case.  And  no  doctor 
seems  to  have  even  said  that  such  w^as  his  opinion. 

And  indeed  there  seems  to  be  no  evidence,  expert, 
or  otherwise,  that  it  was  a  tumor  of  any  kind.     Boil 


The  Triifh  About  Christian  Science       239 

the  evidence  down,  and  it  seems  to  be  simply  (if  not 
mere  guess  work  all  the  way  through)  that  the  lady 
lost  fifty  pounds,  or  thereabout,  in  some  indeterminate 
time.  The  present  writer  has  known  of  a  case  in 
which  an  adult  person  gained  eighty  pounds  in  a  year, 
advancing  from  one  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  to  two 
hundred  and  ten.  He  afterward  lost  it  in  about  the 
same  length  of  time ;  but  nobody  imagined  that  there 
had  been  any  tumor.  The  proof  of  it,  as  given  in 
this  case,  seems  to  rest  simply  on  "  a  continuous 
hemorrhage  for  eleven  years  "  of  the  eighteen  years  in 
which  the  "  tumor  "  was  growing.  But  on  Eddian 
principles,  an  apparent  increase  or  decrease  of 
weight  would  amount  to  nothing,  anyway.  There 
could  not  be  any  real  weight  in  matter,  as  it 
has  no  real  existence.  Mind  is  the  only  thing  that 
could  possibly  have  any  weight,  or  anything  else.  We 
are  rather  astonished  that  Mrs.  Eddy  allowed  an 
account  so  obviously  heretical  as  this  to  be  put  into 
her  book. 

We  read,  by  the  way,  in  another  case,  that  a  lady 
gained  forty  pounds  in  three  months  by  simply  read- 
ing Science  and  Health.  In  the  case  of  our  own 
friend,  just  mentioned,  the  increase  in  weight,  it  is 
true,  was  only  half  as  rapid,  being  only  eighty  pounds 
in  a  whole  year.  And,  strange  to  say,  he  never  read 
Science  and  Health  at  all. 

Here  is  a  case  which  really  should  be  quoted,  and  in 
it  the  opinion  of  the  home  doctor  and  also  of  a 
specialist  is  given:  "My  eyes  were  very  bad.  so  that 
I  sat  in  a  darkened  room  for  weeks  together,  most  of 
the  time  in  bed  under  opiates.  The  home  doctor  and 
a  specialist  said  the  disease  of  the  eyes  could  not  be 
cured,  though  they  might  help  me  for  a  while,  and  the 


240       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

doctor  said  if  I  took  cold  I  would  become  totally 
blind.  Isly  suffering  was  beyond  telling.  A  clergy- 
man called  almost  every  day,  and  sat  by  my  bed  and 
wept,  and  my  good,  kind  doctor  shed  tears  many  times." 

It  would  seem  from  this  account  as  if  the  clergyman 
and  the  doctor  perhaps  had  an  idea  that  weeping  and 
shedding  tears  might  by  the  exercise  of  their  own 
eyes,  help  those  of  the  patient ;  otherwise  it  might 
seem  more  appropriate  to  say  some  prayers  or  give 
some  drugs.  But  it  does  look  as  if  they  had  given 
up  the  case,  from  a  spiritual  as  well  as  a  material 
point  of  view,  and  took  to  weeping  as  a  sort  of  last 
resort.  It  is,  however,  quite  rare  to  find  either  a 
clergyman  or  a  doctor  who  has  tears  so  completely  at 
command.  But  the  weeping,  as  it  would  seem,  also 
failed.  Nothing  proved  to  be  of  any  use  except 
Christian  Science,  by  which  the  lady  was  *'  healed  in- 
stantaneously." But  it  is  not  stated  what  the  disease 
was.  Perhaps  it  was  a  constant  weeping,  and  that 
Vv^eeping  had  been  tried  as  a  sort  of  homoeopathic  treat- 
ment. But  the  cheering  up  given  by  Christian  Science 
(which  certainly  does  have  that  effect)  turned  out  to 
be  the  thing. 

Doctors  do  sometimes  take  matters  too  seriously ; 
there  is  no  doubt  of  that.  A  good  friend  of  ours  said 
that  he  had  been  told  by  a  doctor  that  if  he  sneezed, 
he  might  become  totally  blind.  (This  is  like  what  we 
just  had,  in  the  last  case.  This  was  a  gloomy  pros- 
pect; for  one  can't  sometimes,  help  sneezing.)  But 
that  was  a  good  while  ago,  and  his  eyes  are,  we  under- 
stand, as  good  as  ever,  though  that  isn't  saying  much. 
And  this  one  never  tried  Christian  Science  either. 

It  might  be  worth  while  to  get  up  a  list  of  people 
who  had  been  ''  cured  "  without  doing  anything  at  all; 


TJie  Truth  About  Christian  Science       241 

and  also  (even  more  important)  of  cases  where  even 
Christian  Science  failed  to  cheer  them  sufficiently.  A 
good  many  Scientists,  beside  Mrs.  Eddy,  have,  we 
fancy,  died  since  her  book  was  given  to  the  world. 
Statistics  on  this  point  would  be  interesting.  And  this 
is  a  more  important  point  than  might  at  first  appear. 
For  in  ordinary  cases  of  miracles  or  supernatural 
cures,  they  are  ascribed  by  Christians  generally  to  a 
special  interposition  of  God,  which  can  seldom  be 
expected ;  but  Christian  Science  ought  to  work,  as  it 
professes  to  be  a  regular  science,  every  time.  It  just 
works  according  to  the  regular  nature  of  "  Mind ;  " 
and  that  should  be  always  the  same.  So  it  is  the 
failures  of  it,  not  the  successes,  which  should  be  looked 
on  as  extraordinary. 

Another  investigation,  which  would  also  be  desir- 
able, if  it  was  possible,  would  be  to  find  out  how  many 
sick  people  have  been  cured  by  ordinary  medical  treat- 
ment. According  to  the  principles  of  Eddian  Science, 
no  effect  whatever  ought  to  be  produced  by  such  treat- 
ment. But,  in  point  of  fact,  it  would  undoubtedly  be 
found  that,  as  a  rule,  it  is  successful.  The  failures  in 
it  are  usually  due  to  the  difficulty  of  determining  just 
what  is  the  matter^  especially  when  there  are  several 
organs  out  of  order,  and  what  helps  one  may  harm 
another;  or  sometimes  that  there  isn't  much  of  any- 
thing the  matter  at  all.  Of  course,  there  are  cases 
which  have  got  beyond  the  reach  of  medicine,  or  were 
so  from  the  beginning;  since  for  many  diseases  no 
natural  remedy  has  yet  been  ascertained;  especially 
for  those  unavoidably  connected  with  old  age.  No 
natural  means  for  prolonging  life  forever  has  yet  or 
ever  will  be  discovered. 

But  if  we  were  to  compare  the  number  of  cases  wdiich 


242        The  Truth  About  Christian  Scien 


ce 


have  been  cured,  or  the  ultimate  failure  certain  in 
every  case  averted  for  a  very  long  time,  by  medical 
science,  with  those  w^hich  even  seem  to  be  due  to 
Eddian  Science,  there  is  no  manner  of  doubt  that  the 
former  number  would  be  overwhelmingly  greater 
than  the  latter.  And  yet  this  latter  pseudo-science 
would  have  us  shut  off  the  aid  of  true  and  genuine 
medical  science,  so  immensely  effectual  in  practice,  in 
order  to  give  a  chance  for  Eddyism  to  work. 

This  is  a  very  grave  and  serious  charge  made  by 
common  sense  and  by  genuine  Christian  faith  against 
Eddyism.  All  real  Christians  know  perfectly  well 
that  God  may,  if  it  be  His  holy  Will,  cure  by  super- 
natural means  where  natural  ones,  dependent  on  His 
laws  for  matter  which  regularly  work,  will  fail.  And 
we  do  not  wait  till  it  has  been  proved  that  they  are 
going  to  do  so.  As  soon  as  any  disease  is  really 
serious,  we  ask  Him  at  once  to  come  to  the  help  of 
the  natural  means  which  He  Himself  has  established. 
And  we  do  so  more  urgently,  if  it  seems  that  they  are 
going  to  be  insufficient.  But  we  do  not  "  tempt ''  or 
try  Him,  by  throwing  away  the  gifts  which  He  has 
given  us.  Nor  do  we  neglect  ordinary  precautions 
against  the  natural  effect  of  the  laws  which  God  Him- 
self has  made  for  matter,  by  yielding  to  the  idea, 
which  according  to  the  Scripture  Satan  himself 
suggested  to  Our  Lord,  that  the  angels  "  shall  bear 
thee  up,  lest  perhaps  thou  dash  thy  foot  against  a 
stone." 

Nobody,  then,  who  has  faith  in  God,  objects  to 
Eddyists,  when  they  feel  a  reasonable  and  Christian 
confidence  that  God  (or  "Mind"  as  it  is  their  fad 
to  call  Him)  will  help  them,  and  especially  that  He 
will  do  so  supernaturally  when  His  natural  means  do 


TJic  Truth  About  Chrisfian  Science       243 

not  suffice.  And  we  know,  from  the  long  experience 
of  all  human  history  and  particularly  from  the  two 
thousand  years  of  Christianity,  that  He  has  done  so 
all  along,  and  continues  on  innumerable  occasions  to 
do  so,  right  up  to  the  present  time ;  and  often,  im- 
mensely often,  in  a  most  phenomenal  way.  No  one, 
who  is  in  possession  of  the  facts  of  the  case,  has  any 
idea  that  "  the  age  of  miracles  has  passed ;  "  we  see 
too  many  of  them  continually,  and  in  the  annals  of 
the  Church  they  are  recorded  by  the  thousand.  Those 
of  us  who  are  Catholics  expect  them,  and  take  them 
almost  as  a  matter  of  course,  on  occasions  when  the 
glory  of  God  seems  to  specially  call  for  them.  If 
*'  Scientists  "  would  only  look  at  those,  for  instance, 
worked  at  Lourdes,  or  at  those  recorded  in  the  pro- 
cesses of  canonization  of  the  Saints,  they  would 
see  how  insignificant,  both  in  number  and  in  char- 
acter, their  own  "  cures "  would  appear.  But  we 
ask  for  them  that  God  may  be  glorified  before  and 
among  men,  not  that  we  may  be  relieved  from  the 
suffering  which  our  sins  deserve.  And  the  nearer, 
spiritually,  we  may  be  to  God,  the  more  clearly  does 
this  former  motive  stand  out  in  our  minds. 

The  mercy  of  our  good  God,  however,  is  so  great 
that  He  does  not  insist  on  our  emphasizing  this  right 
motive  all  the  time,  but  is  willing  to  show  His  mercy 
and  His  power  on  many  occasions  as  a  reward  for 
faith  in  Him,  however  imperfect  that  faith  may  be, 
or  however  selfish  our  motives.  Even  if  we  have  a 
notion  that  we  have  discovered  a  new  "  science,"  by 
which  we  have  Him  at  command  as  it  were,  and  can 
draw  on  Him  to  any  extent  whenever  we  wish,  He 
may  help  us,  especially  in  an  unbelieving  age  like 
this,  in  order  to  inspire  confidence  in  Him,  when  such 


244       T^^^  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

confidence,  and  even  faith  of  any  kind,  has  been  lost 
by  so  many.  If  *'  Eddian  Science,"  false  as  it  ob- 
viously is  to  all  reasonable  persons,  brings  anyone 
back,  even  a  step,  in  the  right  direction,  toward  true 
faith,  He  may  sometimes  allow  it  to  succeed,  as  long 
as  the  success  is  not  asked  for  as  a  formal  endorse- 
ment of  it.  *'  Half  a  loaf,"  even  for  the  good  God, 
may  be  "  better  than  no  bread."  If  we  depend  on 
His  help,  however  mistakenly,  He  may  be  willing  to 
give  it,  as  being  better  than  not  to  depend  on  it  at 
all;  and  may  also  bring  us  to  look  for  it  where  it 
can  be  found  so  much  more  abundantly. 

But,  in  itself,  to  look  for  it  simply  because  God 
is  able  to  give  it,  is  really  the  same  as  it  would 
be  to  go  to  a  railway  station  to  buy  a  ticket,  having 
left  all  our  money  at  home.  To  the  poor,  who  have 
no  money,  such  a  favor  might  be  granted ;  but  to  ask 
for  a  ticket,  gratis,  just  on  general  principles  of 
"  love,"  would  not  usually  be  a  success.  Use  what 
money  you  have  to  spare,  first,  would  be  the  more 
reasonable  rule,  however  philanthropic  the  ticket- 
seller  might  be. 

But  to  return  from  this  digression  to  the  actual 
cases  that  we  are  examining.  In  many  of  them  we 
find  that  a  considerable  amount  of  money  had  actually 
been  expended  or,  at  any  rate,  a  considerable  effort 
had  been  made  for  a  cure  by  using  material  means 
for  that  end,  before  resorting  to  the  help  of  so-called 
*'  Christian  Science." 

What  we  chiefly  miss  in  these  cases  is  a  testimonial 
from  the  doctor  himself,  over  his  own  signature,  as  to 
the  natnre  of  the  disease  which  is  reported  as  having 
been  cured.  Of  course,  Christian  Scientists  them- 
selves are  not  very  particular  on  this  point,  and  would 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       245 

not  value  such  testimonials  if  they  were  obtained,  for 
(if  they  have  become  thoroughly  and  interiorly  per- 
suaded of  the  truth  of  the  theoretical  part  of  ^Irs. 
Eddy's  science)  they  are  perfectly  sure  that  there  could 
not  possibly  have  been  any  real  material  body  at  all  for 
the  disease  to  exist  in,  so  that  whatever  name  the  doc- 
tors chose  to  give  to  it  would  not  be  of  the  slightest 
importance.  All  doctors,  as  well  as  the  unprofessional, 
are,  of  course,  from  a  "  scientist's  "  standpoint,  the  vic- 
tims of  innumerable  errors  of  mortal  mind;  and  any 
classifications  which  they  may  make  of  them  have  ab- 
solutely no  scientific  value.  The  patient's  own  judg- 
ment of  any  such  error  is  just  as  good  as  that  which 
any  doctor  can  form ;  and  indeed  better,  for  he  knows 
the  symptoms  himself  so  much  better  than  he  can 
describe  them. 

Still,  it  is  told  to  us  in  many  of  the  cases  what 
the  doctor  (or  perhaps  several  doctors)  said  was  the 
nature  of  the  disease ;  but,  after  all,  this  is  only 
second-hand  evidence,  and  the  doctor  (whose  name, 
so  far  as  we  are  aware^  is  never  given)  does  not  stake 
his  professional  reputation  on  it  in  the  mind  of  the 
public.  But,  all  the  same,  it  would  have  been  satis- 
factory to  people  in  general  to  have  a  first-hand  state- 
ment from  the  doctor  in  charge,  such  as  the  doctors 
at  Lourdes  are  usually  quite  ready  to  give.  Though 
firmly  believing  in  the  regular  operation  of  natural 
laws,  the  Christian  doctor  does  not  necessarily  shut 
his  eyes  to  the  possibility  of  the  supernatural,  and  does 
not  think  that  the  natural  would  be  disproved  by  it. 
And  a  good  many  of  his  patients  have  the  same  rea- 
sonable opinion. 

But  we  fully  appreciate  the  difficulty  in  the  cases  of 
Christian  Science.     It  is  quite  awkward  for  a  doctor 


246        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

who  still  believes  in  the  reality  of  matter,  and  of  his 
own  material  science,  and  does  not  believe  in  miracles, 
to  testify  to  what  is  understood  as  completely  wreck- 
ing his  science.  The  best  thing,  perhaps,  left  for  him 
would  be  to  give  up  his  profession  and  his  business, 
and  become  a  "  scientist "  and  a  "  practitioner  "  him- 
self. But  that  would  be  quite  a  drawback  to  the  value 
of  his  testimony,  among  those  who  are  not  yet 
Eddians,  and  for  whose  sake,  principally,  it  is  needed. 
So,  on  the  whole,  we  don't  wonder  that  the  testi- 
monials are  not  forthcoming.  But  we  will  try  to 
get  what  we  can  in  this  line. 

We  have  already  gone  over  some  of  the  cases  of 
"  fruitage."  Perhaps  the  best  way  will  be  to  take 
them  up  in  order  with  some  brief  remarks  on  each, 
and  a  little  more  on  some  of  them.  It  may  be  noted, 
once  for  all,  that  in  no  case  is  the  name  of  the  doctor, 
or  the  full  name  even  of  the  patient,  given. 

Case  I. — ''Cancer  Healed."  To  this  there  is  no 
medical  testimony  as  to  its  being  cancer  at  all.  The 
statement  to  that  effect  is  simply  from  the  patient. 
The  only  thing  about  doctors  is,  'T  had  tried  five  of 
our  local  physicians,  but  with  no  relief,  in  fact  I  be- 
came much  worse.  I  consulted  a  noted  physician  in 
Albany  three  times  and  used  the  medicines  which  he 
prescribed."  Usually,  in  a  case  of  real  cancer,  an 
operation  has  been  considered  the  only  effectual 
remedy.  So  it  would  seem  that  the  dectors  did  not 
consider  it  as  being  such. 

Case  2. — "  Astigmatism  and  Hernia  Healed."  In 
this  case  no  doctor  appears  at  all. 

Case  3. — "  Substance  of  Lungs  Restored."  In  this 
the  only  medical  statement,  as  given  second-hand  by 
the  patient,  is  that  ''  my  lungs  were  like  wet  paper, 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       247 

ready  to  tear  at  any  time."  But  no  name  was  given, 
it  would  seem,  to  the  disease  which  produced  this 
strange  state  of  things. 

Case  4. — This  is  the  one  about  the  *'  fibroid  tumor," 
which  is  the  second  one  described  at  length,  just  now. 

Case  5. — "  Insanity  and  Epilepsy  Healed."  The 
doctors  in  this  case  have  receded  quite  into  the  dis- 
tance; but  as  the  patient  tells  us  that  she  was  at  one 
time  an  inmate  of  an  insane  asylum,  it  would  seem 
that  some  physician  must  have  had  something  to  do 
with  putting  her  there.  It  is  also  stated  that  while 
there,  she  had  a  number  of  ''  bilious  attacks  "  and  that 
no  less  than  six  doctors  ( !)  pronounced  them  in- 
curable. But  somehow  she  got  hold  of  Science  and 
Health,  and  some  five  years  later  she  was  let  out  of 
the  asylum.  At  one  time,  it  is  stated  that  she  was 
"  pronounced  dying,"  in  an  epileptic  fit,  by  the  "  doc- 
tor in  charge."  From  this  last  phrase  it  looks  as  if  that 
was  when  she  was  at  the  asylum.  She  had  "  had  no 
fit  or  symptoms  of  any  since  the  first  week  in  May, 
19 14.  She  was  given  her  liberty  from  the  asylum 
five  months  after  this."  This  really  does  not  look  like 
a  very  convincing  case. 

Case  6. — "  A  Case  of  Mental  Surgery."  This  has 
already  been  given.  It  was  the  first  on  which  com- 
ment was  made. 

Case  7. — "  Cataract  Quickly  Cured."  It  is  a  man 
who  comes  to  the  front  this  time.  But  even  he  only 
speaks  vaguely  of  "  many  doctors,"  who  called  the 
disease  "  iritis  and  cataract."  It  appears  that  he  was 
cured  in  the  end  by  reading  Science  and  Health,  for 
no  less  than  four  hours  together,  one  evening.  He 
says  that  for  some  time  previously  he  "  could  not  read 
longer  than  a  few  minutes  at  a  time,  otherwise  they  " 


248        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

(his  eyes)  *'  would  smart  severely."  He  does  not, 
however,  tell  us  the  interval  since  the  last  occasion 
when  they  smarted  severely  and  this  four  hours 
"  stunt."  After  this,  on  the  next  day,  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  cataract  was  noted,  not  by  a  doctor, 
but  by  the  wife  of  the  patient.  We  are  not  told  how 
long  it  was  since  a  doctor  or  even  his  wife  had  last 
seen  it. 

Well,  we  don't  scoff  at  this  altogether ;  but  it  would 
be  more  conclusive  if  the  facts  just  mentioned  as 
omitted  had  been  given.  One  ought  to  be  rather 
particular  about  details,  when  it  is  claimed  that  sore 
eyes  were  cured  by  reading  a  book  for  four  hours 
(from  7  till  II  p.  M.)  by  gas-light.  And  it  is  strange 
that  the  patient's  wife  made  no  objection  to  his  trying 
this  rather  dangerous  experiment,  and  that  neither  one 
was  thinking  of  watching  it  during  its  progress.  To 
the  profane  outsider  it  would  seem  that  the  eyes  must 
have  improved  somewhat  before  it  began. 

Case  8. — "  Valvular  Heart  Disease  Healed."  In  this 
there  is  no  attempt  to  prove  by  medical  testimony  that 
there  was  any  such  disease  at  all.  Of  all  diseases  this  is 
one  of  the  hardest  to  be  sure  of  for  the  unprofessional. 
And, moreover,  it  often  improves  by  generally  improving 
physical  conditions.  The  present  writer  knows  some- 
thing about  it,  haying  had  it,  according  to  medical 
testimony,  for  about  ten  years.  The  only  proof  given 
of  it  in  this  case  were  "  extreme  nervousness,  weak- 
ness, dyspepsia,  and  insomnia,"  neither  of  which  he 
has  suffered  from  at  all,  except  from  the  third  for 
a  short  period. 

Case  9. — "  The  True  Physician  Found."  In  this 
case  we  are  informed  by  the  patient  that  "  for  seven- 
teen years,  I  had  suffered  from  indigestion  and  gastri- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       249 

tis  in  the  worst  form,  often  being  overcome  from  a 
seeming  pressure  against  the  heart.  I  had  asthma  for 
four  years,  also  had  worn  glasses  for  four  years.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  I  had  swallowed  every  known 
medicine  to  relieve  my  indigestion."  It  may  be  that 
this  last  was  the  principal  cause  of  the  trouble.  We 
quite  agree  with  Prof.  Eddy  that  this  promiscuous 
drugging,  especially  with  patent  or  advertised  medi- 
cines, is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  "  errors  of  mortal 
mind,"  and  likely  to  lead  to  many  others. 

Finally  this  patient  (a  man  also  this  time)  got  hold 
of  Mrs.  Eddy's  "  grand  book,"  and  "  was  completely 
healed  of  all  my  physical  ailments  in  about  two  weeks 
time."  He  also  tells  us :  "  I  have  used  no  medicines 
from  that  day  to  this,  and  with  God's  help,  and  by 
the  wonderful  light  revealed  to  me  through  the  read- 
ing of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  I  never  expect  to  again." 
And  then,  inadvertently,  he  lets  what  may  be  the  cat, 
after  all,  out  of  the  bag,  "  I  used  to  smoke  eight  or  ten 
cigars  a  day."  It  would  seem  that  this,  on  top  of  all 
the  drugging,  might  be  quite  sufficient  to  account  for 
all  the  symptoms,  unless  one  had  a  remarkably  good 
constitution.  No  regular  doctor  appears  in  this  case 
at  all. 

It  is  rather  amusing  to  find  this  gentleman  quoting 
in  the  end  the  proverb  "  Physician,  heal  thyself,"  as 
if  it  was  a  recommendation  given  by  Our  Lord  to 
those  who  were  hearing  Him,  and  in  favor  of  *'  Chris- 
tian Science."  He  just  calls  it  a  ''  Scripture  saying," 
without  stopping  to  look  at  the  context. 

Case  10. — "  Cancer  and  Consumption  Healed." 
In  this  we  learn  (from  the  patient  herself,  not 
from  any  physician)  that  she  "  was  a  great  sufferer 
for  many  years   from  internal  cancer  and  consump- 


250       TJic  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

tion."  She  says,  indeed,  that  she  was  treated  by  the 
best  physicians  in  New  York,  Minneapolis  and  Duluth, 
and  was  finally  given  up  as  incurable."  But  it  is  not 
alleged  that  these  physicians  said  that  she  had  "  in- 
ternal cancer  and  consumption."  There  are  cases 
which  are  incurable  because  the  notions  of  the  patient 
about  them  are  incurable.  But  she  seems  finally  to 
have  shaken  them  off  by  means  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book. 
It  is  undoubtedly  good  for  such  cases.  The  ''  patient " 
seems  to  have  really  had  a  very  good  constitution,  for 
she  tells  us  that  she  had  a  painless  childbirth ;  it  seems 
to  have  occurred  when  she  had  got  "  Science  "  well 
soaked  into  her  system,  and  the  mistaken  idea  about 
"  cancer,  etc.,"  thoroughly  eliminated. 

Case  II.— "A  Remarkable  Case."  This  one  does 
seem  more  remarkable  than  the  usual  kind,  because 
the  trouble  which  was  cured,  that  of  a  little  boy  (we 
are  not  told  the  precise  age),  and  because  he  did  not 
read  Science  and  Health  himself;  his  mother  read  it 
for  him,  and  much  of  the  time,  as  it  appears,  just 
silently  to  herself.  She  had  some  difficulty  in  getting 
the  book,  it  seems,  naturally  enough  not  caring  to  buy 
such  an  expensive  one,  if  she  could  get  a  loan  of  it 
from  somebody ;  and  as  she  was  not  yet  in  the  church, 
she  was  not  obliged  to  buy  it.  She  says :  "  I  never 
saw  anyone  part  so  reluctantly  with  a  book  as  my 
friend  "  (presumably  a  regular  member  of  the  church) 
"  did  with  her  copy  of  the  textbook."  This  confirms 
the  idea  we  have  had,  that  lending  it  must  be  against 
the  rules ;  but  if  we  are  mistaken  we  shall  be  glad  to  be 
corrected.  Perhaps  it  is  only  that  every  "  Scientist  " 
is  under  an  obligation  to  read  a  definite  amount  of 
the  "  textbook  "  daily,  like  that  of  a  priest  to  say  his 
office  every  day  from  his  breviary;    so  that  it  would 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       251 

not  be  convenient  to  let  it  go  altogether  for  twenty- 
four  hours. 

The  lady  read  the  book,  we  are  told,  ''  silently  and 
audibly,  day  and  night,"  and  though  she  **  could  not 
seem  to  understand  it,  yet  the  healing  commenced  to 
take  place  at  once."  This  matter  of  not  "  understand- 
ing "  the  book  is  really  mysterious ;  we  meet  with 
similar  statements  now  and  then.  But  perhaps  it  is 
meant  that  she  could  not  understand  how  it  could  be 
a  Christian  book,  the  difficulty  in  doing  so  would  be 
easily  understood,  since  it  contradicts  the  Bible  and 
the  plain  teachings  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles  on 
almost  every  page,  as  we  have  already  seen. 

"  About  this  time,"  she  tells  us,  ''  we  decided  to 
move  to  the  West."  It  is  stated  that  "  throughout  the 
journey,  we  were  the  only  ones  in  our  car  who  did 
not  get  train-sick."  Rather  a  sickly  car,  it  seems.  Get- 
ting "  train-sick,"  one  would  think,  would  be  more 
extraordinary  than  not  getting  so.  The  present  writer 
has  crossed  the  continent  back  and  forward  four  times, 
and  never  met  with  anyone  who  was  *'  train-sick." 
But  perhaps,  on  this  occasion,  the  train  pitched  and 
rolled  more  than  usual.  Immediately  after  this  it  is 
stated  thiat  "  the  child's  limbs  grew  perfectly  straight, 
he  ate  anything  he  wanted,  and  for  years  he  has  been 
a  natural,  healthy  child  in  every  way." 

If  his  limbs  were  crooked  before  beginning  the 
journey,  and  grew  perfectly  "straight  before  finishing 
it,  that  certainly  would  be  well  worth  mentioning.  But 
it  appears  that  even  before  starting  on  the  journey,  he 
was  "  playing  and  romping  about  the  house  as  any 
child  should ;  "  and  that  for  years  he  has  been  all 
right.  There  seems  to  be  nothing  conclusive  to  show 
that  he  did  not  just  naturally  outgrow  his  complaints. 


252        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

The  lady  proceeds  to  her  own  case,  which  seems  to 
have  been  chiefly  one  of  trouble  with  her  eyes.  "  One 
of  the  leading  oculists  in  Boston  told  her  that  her 
eyes  'were  in  a  dreadful  condition/  and  that  she  would 
always  need  to  wear  glasses."  Almost  needing  to  wear 
glasses  does  not  seem  to  indicate  any  "  dreadful  condi- 
tion "  of  the  eyes.  Of  course  the  lady's  age  is  not 
stated.  But  the  present  writer  had  to  begin  wearing 
glasses  at  the  age  of  forty,  about  the  usual  age  for  be- 
ginning, and  has  worn  them  for  some  thirty  years 
since ;  gradually,  of  course,  having  to  make  them 
stronger  for  reading  purposes.  This  is  just  the  normal 
course  of  things,  from  the  gradual  flattening  of  the 
lens  of  the  eye.  Sometimes,  however,  there  is  a 
recovery  for  a  time ;  and  of  late,  for  quite  a  number 
of  years,  the  change  for  the  worse  may  almost  cease. 

At  the  end  of  this  testimonial,  vague  and  non-medi- 
cal as  it  is  on  the  whole,  we  find,  however,  what  is 
certainly  a  startling  statement.  It  is  that  "  teeth  have 
been  restored,  and  facial  blemishes  removed,  un- 
consciously, simply  by  reading  Science  and  Health." 
What  is  meant  by  teeth  being  ''restored?"  Does  it 
mean  that  teeth  which  had  absolutely  gone  have  come 
back?  If  so,  it  should  have  been  stated  more  un- 
equivocally. But  if  it  means  restored  to  comparative 
usefulness,  the  present  writer  can  testify  to  that,  and 
has  not  had  a  toothache  for  many  years ;  and  long 
before  reading  Science  and  Health  at  all.  So  we 
would  like  to  have  more  detailed  accounts  on  this 
matter.  On  the  whole,  however,  we  will  confess  that 
this  case  is  beyond  the  average,  quite  considerably. 
It  is,  comparatively,  a  "  remxarkable  "  one. 

Case  12. — "  Intense  Suffering  Overcome."  This 
case  the  doctors  seem  to  have  diagnosed  as  one  of 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       253 

sciatic  rheumatism ;  another  one  "  examined  my 
heart  and  claimed  that  it  was  weak,  and  that  I  was 
liable  to  pass  on  at  any  time  from  heart  trouble." 
Another  one  "  said  there  would  have  to  be  an  opera- 
tion which  would  include  the  exposing  and  scraping 
of  the  sciatic  nerve." 

We  know,  personally,  of  a  case  in  which  this  last 
process  was  recommended.  But  it  was  not  actually 
performed.  The  patient  got  better,  and  the  trouble 
did  not  last  very  long.  But  we  are  sure  that  he  never 
read  Science  and  Health  at  all.  He  had  all  his  life 
occasional  attacks  of  rheumatism,  once  at  least  of  the 
*'  inflammatory  "  sort,  and  very  severe.  But  of  late 
he  has  had  less  than  previously.  Science  and  Health 
doesn't  seem  to  have  been  needed. 

Case  13. — This  is  another  case  of  "  sciatic  rheuma- 
tism." But  in  this  no  doctor  comes  to  the  front  at 
all.  It  seems  to  be  that  of  a  lady,  as  most  of  them 
are ;  but  we  are  not  sure ;  we  will  assume  it,  anyway, 
since  she  seems  to  have  consulted  principally  with  her 
sister.  She  thought  she  had  Bright's  disease,  also. 
She  "  had  never  joined  any  church,  and  thought  it 
now  too  late,  as  I  would  have  to  wait  six  months  on 
probation,  and  I  would  be  dead  before  that." 

Her  sister,  she  tells  us,  was  already  a  ''  Scientist," 
and  on  making  inquiries  the  patient  "  soon  found  that 
it  was  just  what  I  had  been  looking  for."  She  "  com- 
menced reading  Science  and  Health,  also  the  New 
Testament."  Strangely,  she  does  not  seem  to  have 
noticed  the  incompatibility  of  the  two.  But  then  she 
was  not  looking  for  religion,  but  only  to  get  physi- 
cally all  right.  She  discovered  what  all  Christians 
were  already  aware  of,  that  "  God  as  revealed  by 
Christ    Jesus    can    do    everything,    that    He    made 


254       ^^^^  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

everything  that  was  made"  (though  Science  and 
Health  denies  this),  "that  He  can  and  does  heal  the 
afflicted ;  "  and  this  well-known  truth  cheered  her  so 
much  that  the  diseases  troubled  her  no  more. 

As  a  testimony  to  the  distinctive  teachings  of 
"  Eddian  Science,"  this  really  doesn't  seem  to  amount 
to  much.  That  would  have  told  her  that  God's  om- 
nipotence was  in  no  way  needed,  and  that  there  really 
was  no  such  thing  as  "  sciatic  rheumatism  "  at  all. 
Indeed  in  almost  all  the  cases  the  patients  seem  to 
have  got  hardly  any  hold  of  this  glorious  ''  Science," 
but  to  have  had  simply  a  faith  in  ordinary  Christian 
teaching,  and  to  have  fancied  that  Christians  did  not 
hold  or  teach  it. 

Case  14. — "  Grateful  for  Many  Blessings."  In  this 
case,  again,  the  doctors  seem  to  recede  into  the  back- 
ground, though  not  disappearing  altogether.  She  (or 
he  perhaps)  ascribes  a  painful  back  to  some  (of  course 
needless)  operation,  and  at  the  end  the  patient  *' had 
doctored  with  three  of  the  best  physicians  in  Seattle, 
but  none  could  give  me  relief."  The  present  writer 
hates  to  say  anything  against  the  climate  of  Seattle, 
for  he  really  thinks  it  is  very  nice,  but  it  was  there 
that  he  had  the  worst  case  in  his  life  of  what  might 
be  called  "  catarrh  of  the  throat,"  which  this  patient 
seems  to  have  had  there.  It  may  have  happened  that 
some  other  climate  was  better  for  that  trouble.  But 
no ;  we  are  assured  that  it  was  "  Christian  Science," 
we  don't  know  just  where.  It  began,  though,  with  the 
"  painful  back." 

Case  15. — This,  for  a  change,  is  that  of  a  "min- 
ister's son."  His  trouble  was  being  a  neurasthenic. 
He  was  "  constantly  taking  medicine  for  eight  years," 
and  "  had  eleven  physicians  attending  him,"  when  he 


Tlic  Truth  About  Christian  Science       255 

called  in  Dr.  Eddy  and  her  Christian  Science,  and 
presumably  dropped  the  others,  and  also  the  "  very 
many  patent  medicines  "  which  he  had  been  taking, 
on  which  in  the  month  or  so  previous  he  had  spent 
no  less  than  eighteen  dollars.  This-  was  certainly 
going  the  patent  medicine  business  some.  It  was 
probably  on  the  sly,  for  the  eleven  physicians  would, 
we  should  think,  have  objected. 

This  seems  to  be  a  pretty  clear  case  of  "  too  many 
cooks  spoiling  the  broth."  The  cooks  being  dis- 
charged, and  Science  and  Health  being  substituted, 
before  he  had  half  finished  the  book  he  "  was  eating 
everything  that  anyone  does."  He  read  the  book, 
curiously  enough,  "  eleven  times  straight  ahead " 
(once  to  counteract  the  effects  of  each  physician), 
"  and  many  times  skipping  about."  Not,  you  under- 
stand, skipping  about  on  his  feet,  but  on  the  book. 
In  this  case  a  good  big  dose  of  the  book  seems  to 
have  been  needed ;   and  no  wonder. 

Case  16. — "  Many  Ills  Overcome."  In  this  case  the 
lady  tells  us  that  she  "  has  received  much  help, 
spiritually  and  physically,  through  Christian  Science." 
One  of  the  troubles  was  that  she  could  not  sleep ;  but 
"  trouble  of  every  kind  disappeared  before  I  had  read 
Science  and  Health  through."  We  are  beginning  to 
understand  now  why  it  seems  to  take  so  long,  usually, 
to  finish  the  book ;  it  must  be  that  one  goes  to  sleep. 
And  really  that  is  quite  natural.  There  are  so  many 
things  in  it  that  are  repeated  over  and  over.  Really, 
when  we  have  the  condensation  of  it  at  the  end  of  our 
"  Recapitulation,"  there  is  not  much  of  anything  else. 
This  is  confirmed  by  the  statement  that  her  husband 
"  was  healed  of  the  tobacco  habit  of  fifty  years  stand- 
ing by   reading  Science  and  Health/'     One  couldn't 


256        The  TniiJi  About  Christian  Science 

smoke  and  read  Science  and  Ileatih  at  the  same  time, 
you  see. 

Case  17. — "A  Helpful  Healing."  In  this  case, 
another  lady  tells  us  that  "  I  was  healed  of  neuralgia 
of  the  stomach,  from  which  I  had  suffered  from  a  child. 
As  I  grew  older,  the  spells  became  more  frequent 
and  more  severe ;  the  only  relief  physicians  could 
give  me  was  by  hypodermic  injections  of  morphine. 
Finally  after  each  spell,  I  would  be  prostrated  for  a 
day  or  two  with  the  after  effect  of  the  morphine. 
I  was  entirely  healed  of  this  trouble  through  the 
study  of  Science  and  Health/' 

In  spite  of  all  this,  however,  she  seems  to  have 
been  much  alarmed  at  the  idea  of  trying  it  on  her 
children.  She  says :  "  I  think  I  never  realized  what 
fear  meant  till  I  began  to  try  and  put  into  practice 
my  understanding  of  Christian  Science  for  my  chil- 
dren." It  really  seems  strange  this  talk  one  meets  with 
so  often  about  "  understanding  of  Christian  Science." 
It  seems  quite  easy  to  understand  it;  it  simply  con- 
sists in  being  quite  sure  that  there  is  nothing  what- 
ever the  matter  with  anyone  who  seems  to  be  sick. 
But  putting  it  into  practice  does  often  seem,  and 
actually  is,  rather  difficult. 

The  first  time  she  realized  this  was  in  something 
which  seemed  to  her  to  be  "  a  severe  case  of  croup 
for  my  little  boy."  But  she  made  up  her  mind  that 
it  had  got  to  be  "  science  "  for  him,  kill  or  cure ;  and 
didn't  know  quite  how  to  go  to  work.  So  she  just 
picked  up  the  book  and  began  to  read  aloud.  While 
doing  so,  a  text  occurred  to  her  (Heb.  iv.  12),  which 
doesn't  seem  to  have  any  connection  with  Christian 
Science.  That  seemed  to  help  the  child  at  once  ; 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  she  also  prayed,  as  any 


The  Truth  ^Aboiit  Christian  Science       257 

ordinary  good  Christian  would.  Well,  it  does  seem 
that  the  cure  of  the  croup — if  croup  it  was — might  be 
ascribed  to  the  real  word  of  God  and  prayer ;  but  we 
can't  see  what  Christian  Science  had  to  do  with  it,  or 
why  it  is  put  on  this  list. 

Case  18. — "  Relief  from  Many  Ills."  Here  again, 
we  find  that  in  the  case  of  the  school  teacher  who 
contributes  it,  deafness,  etc.,  "  has  been  overcome  by 
an  enlarged  understanding  of  God's  word,  as  ex- 
plained by  Mrs.  Eddy  in  Science  and  Health."  But 
we  don't  understand  what  is  meant  by  this  "  en- 
larged "  understanding.  It  would  seem  to  be  rather 
contracted  than  enlarged,  as  the  Scripture  in  Mrs. 
Eddy's  book  is  very  limited  in  amount,  and  is  only 
commented  on  at  any  length  in  her  "  Key  "  to  parts 
of  two  of  its  books,  and  there  chiefly  to  perverting 
their  plain  sense,  or  explaining  it  away. 

Case  19. — "  Health  and  Peace  Attained."  This 
really  doesn't  seem  to  be  much  of  a  case.  The  patient 
had  been  treated  by  eminent  physicians  for  "  heredi- 
tary consumption "  (we  didn't  know  there  was  a 
special  '*  hereditary  "  kind),  "torpid  liver,  and  many 
other  diseases."  From  an  orthodox  Protestant  he 
finally  became  "  a  follower  of  Voltaire,  Tom  Paine 
and  Ingersoll."  But  it  doesn't  make  much  difference 
what  he  was  in  that  way.  He  read  Mrs.  Eddy's  book 
from  Tuesday  to  Friday,  and  then  (what  was  of  more 
importance)  prayed,  and  arrived  at  the  orthodox  con- 
clusion "  that  there  is  one  Fatherhood  of  God,  and 
one  brotherhood  of  man,"  which  he  must  have  be- 
lieved before,  if  he  had  been  any  kind  of  an  "  ortho- 
dox Protestant."  But  he  did  not  get  as  far  as  the 
"  motherhood,"  or  any  distinctively  Eddian  doctrine. 
His  health,  however,   improved.     But  we  don't  see 


2S8       The  Truth  'About  Christian  Science 

what  right  Mrs.  Eddy  has  to  this  case,  or  in  fact  why 
she  put  it  in.  We  are  not  told  even  that  he  became 
a  *'  Scientist." 

Case  20.—**  Health  and  Peace  Gained."  This  gen- 
tleman had  been  "  drawn  to  Christian  Science  by  a 
relative  whose  many  afflictions  had  given  place  to 
health  and  harmony."  After  a  while  (time  not 
exactly  stated)  he  got  rid  of  asthma  (another  "  heredi- 
tary "  case)  and  neuralgia  in  an  aggravated  form,  and 
gave  up  tobacco  and  liquor.  Not  a  word,  in  this  case, 
about  doctors,  or  medical  treatment  of  any  kind.  Not 
much  of  a  case,  it  must,  we  think,  be  admitted. 

Case  21. — ''Consumption  Quickly  Cured."  This 
case  is  a  better  one  than  those  which  we  have  been 
having  lately.  It  is  given  to  us  by  a  gentleman  who 
narrates  the  healing  of  his  wife  of  "  what  the  doctors 
called  consumption  in  its  last  stages."  What  precisely 
the  doctors  called  "  consumption  "  is  not  stated,  and 
of  course  the  names  of  the  doctors  are  not  given. 
But  so  far  as  they  recommended  anything  it  seems  to 
have  been  a  "  higher,  drier  climate,  and  when  she 
would  be  at  her  worst  to  give  her  something  to  quiet 
her."  And  at  last  she  became  so  much  worse  that 
he  called  in  a  doctor  again.  He  says  that  this  doctor 
also  diagnosed  the  case,  but  it  does  not  say  that  he 
also  called  it  "  consumption."  But  at  any  rate,  he 
agreed  with  the  advice  of  the  others  in  ordering  "some 
morphine  tablets  to  make  her  rest."  Two  had  been 
given,  apparently,  without  any  good  effect,  and  "  just 
before  the  time  to  give  her  another  "  she  called  me 
to  her  bedside  and  said,  "  Don't  give  me  any  more  of 
that  stuff,  for  it  does  me  more  harm  than  good ;  "  so 
the  husband  obediently  put  them  at  once  into  the  fire. 

Next    day    a    Christian    Science    lady    called    and 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       259 

loaned  to  the  patient  a  copy  of  Science  and  Health. 
The  patient  read  it  from  ten  o'clock  till  dinner  was 
called.  She  then  ate  a  hearty  dinner,  the  first  in  about 
three  days ;  having,  as  it  would  seem,  made  up  her 
mind  that  there  was  nothing  the  matter  with  her, 
after  all ;  and  then  read  the  book  "  two  hours  a  day 
for  eight  days,  and  was  healed."  Three  months  after- 
ward it  was  found  that  she  had  gained  forty  pounds 
in  weight. 

Now  if  this  patient  really  had  pulmonary  consump- 
tion this  case  was  certainly  one  answering  to  the 
title,  "  Consumption  Quickly  Cured."  But  there  is 
just  where  the  doubt  comes  in.  The  lady  seems  to 
have  eaten  a  "  hearty  dinner  "  three  days  before  she 
got  the  book ;  and  that  is  not  usual  with  patients  "  in 
the  last  stages  of  consumption." 

So  the  evidence  does  not  seem  quite  as  conclusive 
as  one  might  be  inclined  to  think.  It  looks  more  like 
a  nervous  or  imaginary  trouble.  We  do  not  read  even 
that  the  doctors  prescribed  any  medicinal  treatment  ex- 
cept "  something  to  quiet  her."  The  husband,  it  is 
true,  "  had  tried  everything  that  he  could  get  in  the 
way  of  materia  medlca;"  but  he  does  not  say  that 
the  doctors  had  prescribed  this  treatment.  It  would 
be  likely,  it  would  seem,  to  aggravate  the  case,  and  to 
be  evidence  of  rather  a  strong  constitution  in  the 
patient.  So  we  are  obliged  to  drop  this  promising 
case  for  want  of  sufficient  evidence. 

Case  22. — "A  Profitable  Study."  This  seems,  in 
one  way,  even  stronger  than  the  last.  The  phy- 
sicians ventured  on  the  statement  "  that  one  lung  was 
gone,  and  that  the  other  was  afflicted  with  tubercu- 
losis ;  "  and  the  patient  "  tried  every  remedy  that  they 
had     suo^sfested."       At     last     she     tried     "  Christian 


•tsi)' 


26o       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

Science."  This  of  course,  if  the  lady  thoroughly  ab- 
sorbed its  teachings,  showed  to  her  clearly  that  the 
doctors  had  been  mistaken,  and  the  idea  that  she  ever 
had  any  lungs  was  merely  "  an  error  of  mortal  mind." 
So  of  course  she  realized  that  she  could  not  have 
even  one  lung  left,  whether  "  afflicted  with  tubercu- 
losis "  or  not. 

But  the  worst  is  yet  to  come.  After  getting  over 
her  trouble,  she  says,  "  I  feel  absolutely  certain  that 
I  have  two  sound,  healthy  lungs  now."  That  is  to 
say,  "  I  feel  absolutely  certain  that  Christian  Science 
is  all  humbug.  For  of  course  we  learn  from  this 
science  that  matter  does  not  exist.  To  take  just  one 
passage  of  Science  and  Health  at  random,  we  find  that 
"  the  objects  cognized  by  the  physical  senses  have  not 
the  reality  of  substance.  They  are  only  what  mortal 
belief  calls  them.  Matter,  sin  and  mortality  lose  all 
supposed  consciousness  or  claim  to  life  or  existence, 
as  mortals  lay  off  a  false  sense  of  life,  substance  and 
intelligence."  This  was  really  too  bad  to  give  Chris- 
tian Science  such  a  blow  in  the  face,  when  it  had 
done  her  so  much  good. 

Case  2^. — "  Healed  of  Infidelity  and  Many  Physical 
Ills."  In  this  case  as  to  the  infidelity  part,  it  seems 
to  have  been  cured,  not  by  Science  and  Health,  but 
by  the  New  Testament.  As  for  "  the  disease  with 
which  I  had  been  troubled  for  years,"  we  learned  that 
it  tormented  me  worse  than  ever  for  about  six  months, 
as  if  trying  to  turn  me  aside,  but  I  lost  all  fear  of  it. 
We  don't  quite  see  how  he  ''  can  honestly  say  that 
Science  and  Health  was  my  only  healer,  and  it  has 
been  my  only  teacher,"  when  there  is  so  little  of  the 
New  Testament  in  it,  and  so  much  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment which  is  dead  against  it. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       261 

Case  24. — "  Diseased  Eyes  Cured,"  has  already  been 
discussed  before  going  through  this  regular  enumer- 
ation. 

Case  25.—"  The  Textbook  Healed  Me."  No  details 
are  given  in  this,  so  we  may  omit  it.  It  only  says 
that  "  I  had  been  under  the  care  of  a  physician  much 
of  the  time,"  that  "  different  opinions  were  given  by 
them,"  and  that  I  was  healed  through  reading  Science 
and  Health  unth  Key  to  the  Scriptures  by  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Case  26. — "  Obstinate  Stomach  Trouble  Healed." 
There  is  hardly  anything  about  the  "  case  "  in  this.  It 
only  says:  "  I  had  suffered  for  years  from  an  obstinate 
form  of  stomach  trouble,  and  that  after  three  or  four 
months  study  I  realized  that  the  stomach  trouble  was 
gone." 

Case  27. — "  Dyspepsia  Quickly  Healed."  This  again 
doesn't  seem  to  be  a  very  strange  one.  The  cure  seems 
to  have  been  chiefly  accomplished  by  "  ignoring  en- 
tirely the  most  rigid  kind  of  diet."  The  present  writer 
had  a  case  in  his  own  person,  in  which  the  cure  re- 
sulted, apparently,  by  ignoring  rigid  rules  of  diet,  tak- 
ing more  active  and  varied  physical  and  mental  exer- 
cise, and  learning  to  smoke. 

Case  28. — "  After  Twenty  Years  Suffering."  In  this 
case  the  doctor,  it  is  true,  diagnosed  it  as  "  spinal 
trouble,  originating  from  a  bad  fall."  But  no  doctor 
seems  to  have  been  called  in  at  the  time  of  the  fall. 
It  may  have  been  spinal  trouble,  but  it  reminds  one 
somewhat  of  an  obstinate  case  of  "  hysteria  "  which 
we  met  with  in  the  course  of  our  experience,  in  which 
the  girl  could  not  be  persuaded  to  get  out  of  bed.  But 
in  this  case  Christian  Science  produced  the  desired 
effect.  The  doctor,  in  the  case  just  mentioned,  thought 
an  alarm  of  fire  might  be  a  good  thing. 


262       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

One  curious  thing  in  this  account  is  especially 
worthy  of  notice.  The  writer,  in  conclusion,  says :  "  I 
have  grown  to  thank  God  with  deepest  sincerity  that 
one  brave  woman  was  found  pure  enough  to  bring 
forth  this  Christ-healing  again,  to  remain  forever 
among  men,  and  save  suffering  humanity  from  all 
disease  and  sin."  Of  course  this  was  written  before 
the  death  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  But  the  confidence  that  the 
writer  seems  to  have  had  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  "  to 
remain  forever  "  seems  to  indicate  that  she  wa's  not 
deficient  in  the  faith  which,  after  all,  is  required  for 
this  special  kind  of  "  science." 

Case  29. — *'  From  Despair  to  Hope  and  Joy."  This 
one,  in  the  patient's  own  mind,  was  certainly  an  ex- 
traordinary one.  "  From  childhood,"  she  says,  *'  I  was 
always  sick,  never  knew  one  hour  of  rest,  and  was 
under  the  doctor's  care  most  of  the  time."  She  never, 
it  would  seem,  slept,  even  when  in  bed.  She  tells  us: 
"  I  grew  steadily  worse,  until  at  last  I  was  obliged 
to  keep  my  bed  for  nearly  three  years — a  great  suf- 
ferer. My  ailments  were,  it  seemed,  all  that  flesh  is 
heir  to,  and  were  called  incurable  by  the  doctors,  viz., 
Bright's  disease,  and  many  others  "  all,  of  course,  "  in 
the  last  stages.  My  case  was  known  among  physicians, 
many  of  whom  were  prominent  specialists,  as  a  most 
extreme  one."  However,  relief  was  at  hand.  "  The 
little  book  was  handed  me  at  this  hour  of  great  need. 
I  read  it,  and  read  it  again,  and  soon  found  myself 
growing  stronger,  then  I  kept  on  reading,  and  was 
perfectly  healed  of  all  my  supposedly  incurable 
diseases." 

Of  course,  as  in  all  the  other  cases,  we  do  not  learn  the 
name  of  a  single  one  of  these  physicians  and  specialists. 
Probably  they  could  not  make  out  what  was  really  the 


The  Trnih  About  Christian  Science       262, 

matter  with  her ;  anyway,  the  idea  which  she  had,  that 
there  was  something  the  matter  with  her,  was  pro- 
nounced as  incurable  by  the  doctors.  But  she  learned 
from  the  "  little  book  "  that  there  really  was  nothing 
the  matter  with  her ;  and  we  should  think  might  have 
learned  that  at  the  very  first  reading.  At  last  she 
believed  what  the  little  book  said,  and  of  course  got 
well  right  away. 

Case  30. — "  Truth  Makes  Free."  In  this  case  the 
subject  of  the  cure  was  the  "  son  of  a  physician,  a 
graduate  in  pharmacy,  and  an  ex-druggist ;  "  not  three 
different  people,  but  all  three  combined  in  one.  In 
spite  of  these  safeguards,  however,  he  had  suffered 
from  catarrh  and  sore  throat  for  thirty  years ;  "  and 
in  the  last  five"  (of  the  thirty)  "were  added  several 
others,  including  dyspepsia  and  bronchitis,  and  a  loss 
in  flesh  of  sixty  pounds."  All  these  troubles  were 
cured  "  through  the  spiritual  understanding  of  Chris- 
tian Science,  the  result  of  about  six  weeks  study." 

*'  When  I  learned,"  he  says,  "  that  Jesus'  mission 
of  healing  sickness  as  well  as  sin  did  not  end  with  His 
short  stay  upon  earth,  but  is  practical  in  all  ages,  my 
joy  was  unbounded."  One  hardly  sees  why  it  took 
him  so  long  to  learn  this,  as  all  Christians  have  always 
believed  it;  only  they  have  usually  believed  that  such 
healing  is  mainly  accomplished  by  prayer,  rather  than 
by  reading  a  book,  and  studying  on  it ;  and  have  not 
been  sure  that  it  would  be  attained  every  time,  but 
that,  on  the  contrary,  bodily  ills  would  not  be  cured 
when  the  cure  would  be  unfavorable  to  spiritual  in- 
terests; or,  in  other  words,  that  Christian  healing  is 
not  a  "  science,"  but  a  special  and  supernatural  gift 
from  God.  Indeed  he  tells  us  that  his  study  was 
"  prayerful,"  and  that  may  have  helped  in  the  cure, 


264        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

which    does    not    seem    to    have   been   a    phenomenal 
one. 

Case  31. — ''  Deaf  Ears  Unstopped."  This  lady  states 
that  she  "  was  healed  of  hereditary  deafness  and 
catarrh  of  the  head,  simply  through  reading  the  book, 
Science  and  Health."  We  do  not  know  exactly  what 
"  hereditary  "  deafness  is,  or  how  it  differs  from  the 
ordinary  kind ;  or  what  is  the  difference  between 
catarrh  of  the  head  and  a  persistent  *'  cold  in  the 
head."  Rut  she  had  not  read  fifty  pages  before  she 
was  all  right,  and  ''  never  had  a  return  of  the  ail- 
ment." ■  Those  first  fifty  pages  are  mostly  about  what 
the  book  calls  *'  Prayer,"  which  certainly  ought  to 
help ;  but  the  book  says,  as  it  would  seem,  that  prayer 
chiefly  consists  in  ''  denying  sin  and  pleading  God's 
allness."  This  is  somewhat  mysterious,  but  would 
seem  to  mean  that  there  is  no  sin,  and  nothing  what- 
ever except  God,  as  this  is  the  regular  Eddian  doctrine. 
But  perhaps,  even  at  this  early  stage,  one  might  grasp 
the  idea  that  deafness  and  catarrh  of  the  head  were 
only  wild  delusions,  and  "'  deny  "  them  both.  Most 
people  cannot  get  on  so  far  as  soon  as  that ;  and  even 
if  they  did,  the  delusions  would  probably  go  on,  all 
the  same.  But  a  real,  thorough  Scientist  pays  no  at- 
tention to  the  testimony  of  the  material  senses,  as  we 
know ;  he  only  regards  what  ought  to  be,  not  what 
actually  is.  So  even  his  testimony  as  to  "  cures  "  is 
not  so  very  convincing.  If  one  ought  to  be  well,  one 
is.  So,  after  all,  these  testimonies  as  to  "  cures  "  may 
be  really  only  to  the  effect  that  at  the  time  at  which  the 
testifiers  say  they  were  cured,  they  had  made  up  their 
minds  that  they  ought  to  have  been,  or  must  have  been. 
She  gives  another  rase,  appended  to  this,  of  a  little 
girl  of  three  who  had  met  with  some  accident,  and 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       265 

this  same  lady,  her  mother,  thought  the  child  had  dis- 
located her  shoulder.  The  little  girl  cried,  of  course, 
a  great  deal.  After  a  while  the  pain  subsided ;  and 
about  four  hours  later  "  she  was  playing  out  doors  as 
though  nothing  had  ever  happened."  There  is  not  a 
scrap  of  evidence  from  any  physician  or  surgeon  that 
there  had  been  any  dislocation  at  all. 

Case  32. — "  Saved  from  Insanity  and  Suicide."  The 
lady  who  narrates  this  had  a  daughter  who  had  been 
''  given  up  by  materia  medica  to  die  of  lingering  con- 
sumption." Probably  she  means  given  up  by  the  doc- 
tors. "  My  own  condition  seemed  even  more  alarm- 
ing," she  says,  "  as  fnsanity  was  being  manifested,  and 
rather  than  go  to  an  insane  asylum  it  seemed  to  me 
the  only  thing  to  do  was  to  commit  suicide."  She  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  very  firmly  grounded  in  Chris- 
tianity. However,  her  doctor  tried  to  persuade  her 
to  undergo  an  operation  as  a  means  of  relief ;  not  for 
insanity,  but  for  various  other  diseases. 

But  she  concluded  to  try  insanity  in  a  milder  form, 
that  of  Science  and  Health;  like  getting  vaccinated  to 
avoid  the  smallpox.  So  she  started  in  with  the  chapter 
on  "  Prayer."  She  says :  ''  I  did  not  at  that  time  sup- 
pose it  possible  for  me  to  remember  anything  I  read, 
but  I  felt  a  sweet  sense  of  God's  protection  and  power, 
and  a  hope  that  I  should  at  last  find  Him  to  be  what 
I  so  much  needed — a  present  help  in  time  of  trouble." 
There  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  she  could  not  have 
found  this  to  be  stated  as  the  case  in  any  ordinary 
Christian  book.  But,  strange  to  say,  ''  before  that 
chapter  on  'Prayer'  was  finished"  (which  would  take, 
we  should  think,  at  most  sixteen  minutes,  as  there  are 
only  sixteen  pages  of  it),  though  she  seems  to  have 
got  no  good  from  it  herself  other  than  as  above  stated. 


266       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

her  "  daughter  was  down  stairs  eating  three  meals  a 
day,  and  daily  growing  stronger.  Before  I  had 
finished  reading  the  textbook  she  was  well,  but  never 
having  heard  that  the  reading  of  Science  and  Health 
healed  anyone,  it  was  several  months  before  I  gave 
God  the  glory."  All  her  own  ailments,  she  tells  us, 
"  left  me,  all  but  the  headaches ;  they  were  less  fre- 
quent, until  at  the  end  of  three  years  the  fear  of  them 
was  entirely  overcome." 

She  concludes  with  something  even  more  remark- 
able. It  is  the  case  of  ''  an  unhappy  woman  who  was 
about  to  separate  from  her  husband."  She  was  asked 
if  she  did  not  love  her  husband.  She  replied,  "No; 
when  I  married  him  I  did,  but  not  now."  One  would 
expect  that  she  would  have  been  told  to  be  faithful  to 
him,  and  get  along  as  well  as  she  could.  But  what 
was  she  told  ?  She  was  told  that  "  God  made  man  in 
His  image  and  likeness,  and  that  He  "  (God)  "  is  per- 
fect ;  "  and  that  she  should  "  go  home  and  see  only 
God's  perfect  man ;  you  don't  need  to  love  a  sinful 
mortal  such  as  you  have  been  looking  upon." 

Most  people  would  think  that  the  old-fashioned  ad- 
vice given  by  Our  Lord,  ''  Love  your  enemies :  do 
good  to  them  that  hate  you,"  would  have  been  more 
Christian  than  this;  especially  as  there  seems  to  have 
been  nothing  specially  objectionable  in  the  poor  hus- 
band. And  St.  Paul  insists  strongly  that  husbands 
should  love  their  waives;  and  what  is  sauce  for  the 
gander  would  be  specially  in  order  for  such  a  goose, 
as  this  one  seems  to  have  been.  But  no ;  instead  of 
regular  Christianity,  we  must  have  such  '*  scientific  " 
twaddle  as  this  "  case "  gives  us.  We  have  quoted 
it  rather  at  length,  as  it  is  such  an  exceptional  com- 
bination of  superstition  and  pseudo-spirituality. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       267 

Case  33. — "  Stomach  Trouble  Healed."  This  is  the 
case  of  a  traveling  salesman,  who  says :  "  It  was  a 
common  occurrence  for  me  to  have  to  call  a  physician 
to  my  hotel  to  administer  morphine  for  an  acute  form 
of  this  disease." 

It  is  a  curious  thing  that  however  inefficacious  drugs 
may  seem  to  be,  morphine  seems  always  to  work,  as  in 
Cases  ly  and  21.  In  this  one  we  learn:  ''  I  had  tried 
many  physicians  and  most  of  the  usual  remedies  during 
these  years  of  suffering,  without  any  good  result." 
These  "  usual  remedies  "  evidently  do  not  include  mor- 
phine. What  the  stomach  trouble  was  we  do  not  learn; 
but  as  far  as  we  are  informed,  it  seems  to  have  been 
simply  a  stomachache.  It  must  have  been  rather 
severe  to  call  for  morphine.  No  particulars  are  given 
of  the  healing,  except,  that  "  as  a  last  resort, 
I  decided  to  try  Christian  Science,  and  I  was  healed  " 
(that  is  to  say,  did  not  have  any  more  stomachaches) 
"  by  reading  Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the 
Scriptures/'  by  Mrs.  Eddy. 

Case  34. — "  Freed  from  Many  Years  of  Suffering." 
This  is  another  case  of  stomachache.  Also  bladderache 
and  corns.  Rheumatism  and  grip  every  winter.  Also 
a  growth  on  both  eyes,  which  "  caused  my  eyes  to 
be  inflamed  nearly  all  the  time."  It  was  called 
"  cataract,"  but  whether  so  called  by  the  doctors  we 
are  not  informed.  Of  course  there  is  no  medical  cer- 
tificate. In  spite  of  the  inflamed  eyes,  this  patient  was 
able  to  read  Science  and  Health,  and  ''  was  healed 
in  a  short  time  by  reading  this  work." 

Case  35. — "  Relief  from  Intense  Suffering."  In  this 
case  no  one  seems  to  have  been  sure  what  was  the 
matter ;  "  one  physician  diagnosed  the  case  as  a  dan- 
gerous kidney  disease,  and  said  that  no  medicine  could 


268        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

help  me,  but  that  I  must  undergo  a  surgical  operation." 
Another  doctor  "  made  an  examination  and  diagnosed 
the  difficulty  as  something  different,  but  quite  as 
serious."  At  last  she  promised  to  read  Science  and 
Health,  and  "  on  Sunday  morning  I  sat  down  to  read 
it.  When  I  reached  the  place  where  Mrs.  Eddy  says 
she  found  this  truth  in  the  Bible,  I  began  comparing 
the  two  books."  We  are  not  told  what  particular  truth 
she  is  referring  to.  It  is  evident  that  most  of  the 
teachings  of  Mrs.  Eddy  could  not  be  found  anywhere 
in  the  Bible.  ''I  read  passages"  (she  says,  but  does 
not  say  in  which  book)  '*  which  looked  very  reasonable 
to  me,  and  I  said  to  myself  this  is  nearer  to  the  truth 
than  anything  I  have  ever  seen."  Neither  the  Bible 
nor  Mrs.  Eddy,  it  would  seem,  were  exactly  right,  but 
somewhere  near.  But  at  last  she  "  felt "  that  she  was 
healed,  but  ''  read  on  and  was  certainly  healed ;  "  and 
tells  us  that  "  eight  days  after  the  healing  I  did  my 
own  washing."  Six  weeks  later  she  had  another  ex- 
amination by  her  former  physician,  and  he  said  the 
trouble  was  certainly  gone,  and  that  God  had  healed 
her.  She  seems  to  think  this  a  clear  testimony  to  the 
efficacy  of  Science  and  Health,  as  if  no  one  had 
imagined  that  God  had  healed,  or  did  at  any  rate  heal 
any  one  nowadays,  till  that  book  was  published. 

Case  36. — "  Gratitude  for  Many  Blessings."  This 
patient  first  heard  of  Christian  Science  about 
fifteen  years  ago,  and  then  was  told  of  the  book 
by  a  friend.  The  patient  said  to  the  friend : 
*'  If  that  is  a  key  to  the  Scriptures,  I  must  have  it." 
It  would  seem  that  it  must  have  been  rather  a  shock 
to  find  that  the  book  was  not  such  a  "  Key  "  at  all, 
but  only  some  rather  surprising  explanations  of  five 
or  six  chapters  out  of  the  whole  Scriptures.    However, 


TJic  Truth  About  Christian  Science       269 

in  spite  of  this  obvious  deficiency,  it  "  illumined  the 
Bible  with  a  glorious  light,  and  I  began  to  understand 
some  of  the  Master's  sayings,"  that  is,  it  would  seem, 
to  understand  that  some  of  the  plainest  statements 
made  by  Him  were  very  far  from  being  true. 

This  patient  did  not  have  any  serious  disease,  so 
far  as  is  stated,  but  thought  that  there  were  many  phy- 
sical troubles,  not,  however,  as  would  appear,  enough 
to  bother  a  doctor  about.  But  it  became  evident  by 
simply  reading  Science  and  Health  that  ''  I  had  no 
disease — I  was  perfectly  free."  This  glorious  truth 
was  only  imperfectly  apprehended  by  the  patients  in 
the  cases  thus  far;  they  clung  to  the  belief  that  they 
had  been  sick,  at  any  rate. 

Case  37. — "  Gratitude  for  Moral  and  Spiritual 
Awakening."  The  awakening  in  this  case  seems  to 
have  been  chiefly  the  discovery  that  a  habit  of  almost 
incessant  smoking  could  be  and  actually  was  broken 
up  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  book,  and  that  the  desire  for 
drink  also  yielded  to  it.  "  I  wish  to  say  here,  that  I 
received  all  these  benefits  before  I  had  gained  much 
understanding  of  what  I  was  reading."  From  the  way 
in  which  the  patients  in  these  cases  often  speak  of 
the  book,  one  would  think  it  was  a  very  profound 
and  abstruse  one.  We  don't  remember  that  any  great 
point  is  m.ade  in  it  about  smoking  or  drinking.  The 
general  directions  given  in  it  are  rather  of  the  go- 
as-you-please  character.  It  proved  to  be,  it  seems, 
quite  a  help  to  him  in  his  business.  This  is,  perhaps, 
not  very  wonderful.  Mrs.  Eddy  had  certainly  a  good 
head  for  business,  and  knew  very  well  how  to  make 
money.  But  to  acquire  skill  in  this  hardly  seems  to 
be  exactly  "  a  moral  and  spiritual  awakening." 

Case  38. — "Hereditary  Disease  of  the  Lungs  Cured." 


270       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

In  this  case  the  patient  says  that  consumption  was 
hereditary  in  our  family;  but  it  is  not  stated  that  she 
had  it  herself.  She  had,  however,  severe  stomach 
trouble  of  over  eight  years  standing,  and  wore  glasses 
for  fourteen  years.  She  does  not  state  definitely  that 
she  was  cured  of  any  of  these  things ;  the  "  spiritual 
unfolding  and  uplifting "  was  '*  the  pearl  of  great 
price."  It  does  seem  rather  ungrateful  to  grumble  in 
this  way  about  the  great  price  which  one  has  to  pay 
fbr  "  our  textbook." 

Case  39. — ''  Textbook  Appreciated."  This  is  even 
a  more  vague  case  than  the  last.  It  is  really  only  a 
sort  of  advertisement  of  the  book.  Strange  to  say  it 
tells  us  that  ''  the  honest  study  of  this  book,  in  con- 
nection with  the  Bible,  will  enable  one  to  'prove  all 
things.'  "  The  impression  we  have  got  from  it  is  rather 
that  you  have  got  to  take  Mrs.  Eddy's  word  for  all 
things,  and  not  try  to  prove  them  at  all. 

Case  40. — "  Rupture  and  other  Serious  Ills  Healed." 
This  old  lady  says:  ''  I  was  so  absorbed  in  the  study 
of  this  'little  book,'  that  I  was  healed,  not  only  of 
the  rupture,  but  also  of  other  troubles — inflammatory 
rheumatism,  catarrh,  corns  and  bunions."  This  case 
seems  rather  comical.  Wonder  if  the  old  lady  had  all 
these  troubles  at  the  same  time. 

Case  41.— "Mother  and  Daughter  Healed."  The 
trouble  with  the  mother  was  constipation,  for  which 
she  had  been  "  taking  medicines  every  day  for  twenty 
years."  Cured  by  reading  the  textbook  for  three  days ! 
It  is  not  told  us  what  was  the  matter  with  her  little 
daughter,  but  she  was  healed  of  something,  anyway. 

Case  42. — "  Liver  Complaint  Healed."  The  only 
symptom  which  we  can  find  in  this  case  was  a  number 
of  "  odd  looking  spots/'  a  few  of  which  first  appeared 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       271 

on  one  arm,  but  afterward  they  spread  round  quite 
generally.  Various  physicians  were  called  for  a  cure, 
but  finally  the  patient  was  pronounced  so  full  of 
medicine  that  the  last  one  was  afraid  to  have  her  take 
any  more.  The  first  one  had  said  that  the  spots  were 
''  liver  spots."  We  have  never  heard  of  these.  The 
opinions  of  the  other  doctors  are  not  given.  The 
patient  seems  at  last  to  have  given  up  worrying  about 
them,  and  started  to  read  Science  and  Health.  When 
she  had  read  about  half  of  the  book,  and  it  occurred 
to  her  to  look  for  the  spots,  she  could  not  find  them. 
The  medicines,  perhaps,  had  worked  them  out  of  her 
system.  This  is  not  claimed  as  a  very  strong  case; 
but  now  we  come  to 

Case  43. — "  A  Convincing  Investigation."  In  this 
case,  however,  though  the  father  of  the  patient  was 
a  physician,  and  her  mother  had  the  same  disease 
(whatever  it  was)  herself,  the  father  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  able  to  give  it  a  name.  But  he  had 
sensible  views  about  giving  too  much  medicine,  and 
thought  it  was  better  to  have  some  pain  than  to  keep 
dosing  all  the  time.  At  last  some  one  told  her  about 
Christian  Science.  "  I  replied,"  she  tells  us,  "  that 
I  believed  God  could  heal,  but  that  I  had  no  faith  in 
the  healing  of  Christian  Science,  but  would  like  to 
investigate  its  theology,  as  it  might  aid  in  giving  one 
some  clue  to  the  meaning  of  life.  For  three  years  I 
had  searched  the  works  of  the  most  scientific  writers 
to  find  the  origin  of  life;  many  times  I  would  think 
I  had  traced  it  to  the  beginning,  but  it  would  elude 
my  grasp  every  time." 

If  instead  of  "  searching  the  words  of  the  most 
scientific  writers  "  she  had  taken  one  short  look  into 
a  ten-cent  catechism,  she  would  have  found  all  that 


2']2        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

she  was  looking  for,  right  away.  But  instead  of 
doing  so,  she  got  hold  of  Science  and  Health,  and 
found  a  paragraph  near  the  middle  which  attracted 
her  attention.  She  has  never  been  able  to  find  it 
again,  or  apparently  to  remember  it.  The  advantage 
of  the  catechism  would  have  been  that  even  a  small 
child  can  find  there  all  that  is  needed,  and  as  often 
as  desired ;  so  it  would  seem  preferable,  though  we 
would  not  guarantee  that  it  would  cure  her  of  all 
pain.  We  might  guess  that  what  this  lady  did  find 
was  something  to  the  effect  that  she  herself  was  just 
a  part  of  ''  Mind,"  and  that  as  that  could  have  no 
pain,  this  idea  of  pain  was  quite  out  of  the  question. 
So  she  made  up  her  mind  that  it  must  be  stamped 
right  out. 

At  one  leap,  she  got  far  beyond  Mrs.  Eddy  her- 
self. We  have  heard  that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  at  one  time 
suffering  from  a  toothache.  Feeling  that  her  science 
might  be  wrecked  if  she  should  go  to  a  dentist  in  her 
own  town  about  it,  she  went  to  another,  quite  a  long 
distance  away,  and  told  him  she  would  like  to  have 
him  examine  into  it.  As  her  portraits  had  been  often 
published  (we  have  one  in  our  own  copy),  the  dentist 
came  forward  quite  pleased,  and  said,  '*  Please  sit 
down  a  moment,  Airs.  Eddy,  and  let  me  have  a  look 
at  that  tooth."  We  think,  but  are  not  sure,  that  she 
must  have,  at  any  rate  outwardly,  just  denied  any 
pain  (like  the  lady  who  ''broke"  her  arm  when 
she  fell  off  the  bicycle  in  our  first  case),  and  then 
escaped  as  soon  as  possible  to  try  her  luck  somewhere 
else.  We  have  also  heard,  but  probably  incorrectly, 
that  "  Scientists,"  in  memory  of  this  notable  event, 
make  toothache  an  exception  to  their  rules,  and  allow 
treatment    for   it.      If   this    Hegiran   change    of   base 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       273 

is  an  actual  historical  fact,  it  furnishes  a  point  of  re- 
semblance between  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her  illustrious 
predecessor  Mohammed,  additional  to  those  already 
commented  on. 

Case  44. — "  Deafness  and  Dropsy  Healed."  This 
patient  tells  us  that  she  "  had  been  deaf  from  child- 
hood." The  precise  extent  of  this  deafness  is  not 
stated.  Dropsy  was  another  of  her  complaints.  This, 
combined  with  consumption,  quite  naturally  caused 
one  doctor  to  say,  ''  It  puzzles  me ;  I  have  never  seen 
such  a  case  before  as  yours."  But  of  course  it  could 
not  stand  up  against  Science  and  Health.  She  got 
a  copy  of  this,  and  ''  in  three  weeks  was  entirely 
cured."  On  Eddian  principles  we  also  know,  of 
course,  that  she  never  had  dropsy  or  consumption ; 
and  from  the  statement  of  the  doctor  the  same  would 
appear  probable.  But  any  way  she  "  felt  uplifted," 
which  was  the  main  thing. 

Case  45. — "  Grateful  for  Many  Blessings."  This 
patient  had  for  a  number  of  years  been  ''  a  semi- 
invalid,  with  no  help  of  ever  being  well  and  strong 
again."  Indeed  it  did  seem  that  there  was  not  much 
chance  of  it,  for  ''at  the  time  I  began  the  study  of  Chris- 
tian Science  I  was  taking  five  kinds  of  medicine." 
This  was  not  quite  so  bad  as  the  case  (No.  15)  of  the 
minister's  son,  with  "  almost  all  known  drugs,"  and 
"  very  many  patent  medicines,"  but  still  it  would  be 
likely  to  sicken  most  people.  On  starting  in  with 
Science  and  Health  these  medicines  were  probably  laid 
on  the  shelf,  and  "  gradually  my  bodily  diseases  left 
me."  ''  In  my  girlhood,"  she  says,  "  I  had  always 
prayed  to  the  God  I  held  in  mind,  and  when  the 
shadow  of  sickness,  pain  and  death  came  into  my 
family,  I  prayed  as  only  those  can  who  know  that  when 


274        The  TniiJi  About  Clirisfian  Science 

He  helps  not,  there  is  none."  It  was  after  this,  of 
course,  that  she  began  on  the  five  kinds  of  medicine. 

The  case  concludes  with  an  account  of  an  ex- 
perience with  her  daughter  who  came  home  one  morn- 
ing from  her  school,  saying:  "  Mother,  I  have 
measles,  twenty  of  the  girls  are  sick  in  bed,  and  I  am 
afraid  they  will  put  me  there  also."  This  time  they 
did  not  pray  or  give  medicine,  and  of  course  did  not 
call  in  a  doctor,  but  ''  began  immediately  to  do  our 
work  in  Science ;  "  just  what  this  scientific  work  was 
is  not  explained.  When  it  was  completed,  at  any 
rate,  it  was  evident  that  the  notion  of  the  girl  having 
measles  was  simply  an  "  error  of  mortal  mind."  ''  Her 
face  was  clear,  her  eyes  bright,  and  all  fear  was 
destroyed.     That  was  the  end  of  the  disease." 

Case  46. — "  A  Joyful  Experience."  In  this  case 
the  patient  had  ailments  of  many  years  standing. 
''Chronic  stomach  trouble,  severe  eye  trouble"  (per- 
haps she  was  even  told  that  she  might  have  to  wear 
spectacles),  and  a  painful  rupture  of  twenty-five  years 
standing,  (for  which,  however  a  truss  is  not  said  to 
have  been  needed).  The  same  may  be  said  of 
other  cases  of  "  rupture  "  which  are  recorded  in  the 
list. 

She  ''  had  entirely  lost  her  belief  in  an  all-merciful 
God,  and  did  not  know  where  to  turn  for  help."  But 
at  last  Christian  Science  was  brought  to  her  notice. 
"  I  shall  never  forget,"  she  says,  "  the  sublime  moment 
when  I  perceived  that  a  loving  Father  is  always  with 
me."  All  Christians,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  per- 
ceive this  all  the  time;  but  they  also  know  that  the 
Scripture  tells  us  (Heb.  xii.  6)  that  ''whom  the  Lord 
loveth,  He  chastiseth,  and  He  scourgeth  every  son 
whom  He  receiveth."     (The  same  is  told  us  in  Prov. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       275 

iii.  II,  12.)  Of  course  this  is  not  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
"  Key."  So  the  Lord  may,  on  account  of  their  ig- 
norance, let  up  on  those  who  have  never  heard  of  it, 
and  take  to  "  Science  "  instead  of  the  Bible ;  and  as 
ailments  do  them  no  good,  grant  that  such  ailments 
may  "disappear"  (as  in  this  case);  and  give  them 
the  goods  of  this  world,  instead  of  another  in  which 
they  do  not  care  to  believe.  We  would  recommend 
to  such  the  whole  passage,  Heb.  xii.  5-11. 

Case  47. — *'  An  Ever  Present  Help."  This  patient 
tells  us  that  about  a  year  previous  to  writing  this 
testimonial,  he  began  to  read  Science  and  Health, 
"  My  condition,"  he  says,  ''  was  then  very  trying." 
He  had  then  actually  worn  glasses  for  four  years.  He 
also  had  catarrh ;  which  we  must  say  was  not  very 
astonishing,  for  he  was  "  an  excessive  smoker,  using 
tobacco  in  some  form  almost  constantly." 

But  it  was  somewhat  remarkable,  that  after  read- 
ing the  book  only  three  weeks,  he  **  was  completely 
healed  of  the  tobacco  habit."  For  the  book,  so  far 
as  we  remember,  if  it  speaks  of  the  tobacco  habit  at 
all,  certainly  does  not  say  much  about  it.  The  general 
idea  of  the  book  is  that  one  ought  not  to  bother  one- 
self about  such  things,  but  to  be  serenely  confident  that 
nothing  can  do  one  any  harm,  if  one  keeps  firm  in 
the  conviction  that  all  is  "  Mind."  Indeed  it  rather 
discourages  ascetic  or  self-denying  practices  of  any 
kind.  But  still,  if  one  can  succeed  in  really  believing 
that  one  has  no  body,  and  that  there  is  no  such  thing 
as  tobacco,  it  would  naturally  follow  that  there  was 
no  use  in  spending  good  money  by  pretending  to  buy 
it.  For  money  is  an  exception  to  the  general  Eddian 
rule  that  matter  has  no  real  existence. 

So,  on  giving  up  smoking,  which,  as  he  tells  us. 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Scic 


ncc 


'*  did  not  require  even  so  much  as  a  resolutiion  (so 
firmly  he  was  persuaded  that  there  is  really  no  such 
thing  as  smoking),  his  eyes  got  better  (the  smoke  no 
longer  getting  into  them),  and  his  heart  became  nor- 
mal, and  the  catarrh  disappeared.  This  testimonial, 
then,  seems  really  to  be  simply  to  the  effect  that  when 
one  is  an  excessive  smoker,  it  is  good  to  give  up  smok- 
ing, if  one  can  only  manage  it.  And  that  if  Mrs. 
Eddy's  theories  can  be  thoroughly  adopted,  they  will 
be  a  great  help  to  this  desirable  end. 

Case  48. — "  Severe  Eye  Trouble  Overcome."  This 
is  another  case  of  "  glasses."  This  lady  had  worn 
them  for  sixteen  years ;  why  she  had  done  so  is  not 
explained.  Perhaps  she  did  not  need  them  at  all. 
Of  course  specialists,  as  usual,  were  consulted. 
"  None  of  them  held  out  any  hope  that  my  sight  would 
ever  be  restored,"  so  that  she  could  see  all  right  with 
glasses.  At  last  after  reading  Science  and  Health,  she 
became  convinced  that  the  idea  of  wearing  glasses  was 
an  "  error  of  mortal  mind,"  and  she  laid  them  aside. 
"  Through  an  understanding  of  Truth,"  she  says,  "  I 
have  found  my  sight  as  perfect  as  God  gave  it."  We 
don't  quite  understand  how  she  found  out  how  "  per- 
fect "  that  was,  as  "  the  defect  had  existed  since  in- 
fancy." This  "  case,"  certainly,  does  not  seem  to  be 
clearly  explained.  They  may,  of  course,  be  something 
in  it,  but  a  statement  from  the  "  specialists  "  them- 
selves would  be,  more  even  than  usually,  desirable. 
One  thing  in  the  statement,  as  she  gives  it,  comes  out 
plainly ;  that  is,  that  in  her  judgment,  Mrs.  Eddy  is 
right,  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  and  book  of 
Proverbs  (quoted  above  in  Case  46)  wrong. 

Case  4^  — "  A  Testimony  from  Ireland."  This 
invalid,  it  seems,  had  erroneously  imagined  that  the 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       277 

Bible,  in  the  passages  just  mentioned  and  others,  was 
the  Word  of  God;  but  discovered  that  this  was  not 
the  case,  but  overcame  this  delusion  on  learning  that 
''  there  is  but  one  God,  and  that  Mrs.  Eddy  is  His 
prophet."  In  this  sentence,  in  quotation  marks,  we 
have  ventured  to  substitute  *'  Airs.  Eddy  "  for  ''  Ma- 
homet." 

Case  50. — "  The  Textbook  Alakes  Operation  Un- 
necessary." This  case  seems  to  be  simply,  when  im- 
partially viewed,  that  the  physician  who  advised  an 
operation  was  mistaken  as  to  its  necessity;  and  that 
beside  the  trouble  for  which  he  advised  it,  misled 
perhaps  by  her  account  of  the  "  symptoms,"  she  got 
rid  of  "  severe  headaches,"  and  a  mysterious  "  stomach 
trouble,"  which  may  have  been  due  to  too  much 
"  drugging." 

Case  51. — ''Kidney  Diseases  and  Eye  Trouble 
Healed."  Beside  the  disease  mentioned  in  the  title 
above,  the  nature  of  which  is  not  stated,  we  are  also 
told  that  ''  my  general  health  was  very  bad."  But 
*'  we  bought  the  textbook,  and  what  a  revelation  it 
was  and  is  to  us ;  it  is  indeed  the  fountain  of  Truth." 
When  one  has  that,  the  Bible  is  of  no  use,  unless  in- 
deed the  small  portion  of  it  which  Mrs.  Eddy  con- 
descends to  comment  on  to  suit  her  theories.  It  may 
be  laid  aside,  like  the  glasses,  which  seem  to  come  to 
the  front  in  these  recent  cases.  Well,  we  must  ac- 
knowledge that  the  print  in  the  "  textbook "  is  re- 
markably good. 

Case  52 — "  Disease  of  Bowels  Healed."  This  case, 
we  are  told,  ''  four  physicians  failed  even  to  diagnose." 
The  last  one  "  advised  me  to  take  no  more  medicine 
for  these  attacks."  It  is  possible  that  they  may  have 
come  from  imprudence  in  eating;    we  know  of  such 


278     *  The  Truth  About  Christian  Science- 

cases,  and  drugs  were  not,  and  could  not  be,  of  any 
use,  but  rather  would  make  things  worse. 

Case  53.—''  Healed  by  Reading  the  Textbook."  In 
this  the  usual  specialists  said  that  "  the  patient  was 
in  the  last  stages  of  kidney  disease."  What  kind 
of  kidney  disease  we  are  not  informed.  *'  Glasses," 
of  course,  had  also  been-  worn;  though  we  did  not 
know  that  they  were  recommended  for  any  kind  of 
kidney  disease.  However,  we  are  told  that  ''  I  have 
never  had  any  glasses  on  since  I  first  began  reading 
Science  and  Health,  and  I  have  not  used  any  medi- 
cine."    So  much  gained,  at  any  rate. 

Case  54. — ''  A  Testimony  from  Scotland."  In  this 
curious  case  the  patient  was  under  the  impression  that 
he  had  ''  very  bad  rheumatism."  The  doctors,  it  would 
seem,  also  were  under  the  same.  "  I  suffered,"  he 
tells  us,  "  day  and  night,  and  nothing  relieved  me 
until  Science  proved  to  me  the  falseness  of  this  belief 
by  removing  it."  It  is,  however,  remarkable  that  one 
erroneous  belief  about  it  still  seems  to  remain,  that 
medicine  had  been  of  some  use ;  for  we  learn  that 
''I  had  often  tried  to  be  without  it"  (a  particular 
medicine  that  he  had  taken  every  day  for  ten  years), 
"  but  was  always  ill  and  had  to  return  to  it." 

"  Now,"  however,  we  are  told,  "  I  am  quite  free 
from  all  these  material  laws."  Still,  we  have  an  idea 
that  some  day  he  wnll  find,  if  he  has  not  already  found, 
that  the  material  law  of  death  remains  in  force.  This 
case,  we  have  assumed,  is  a  male  one.  But  one  can't 
always  tell,  for  only  initials  are  given  in  any  of  the 
cases. 

Case  55. — "  Curing  Better  Than  Enduring."  This 
one  is  more  of  a  case  than  most  of  the  others  that 
we  have  lately  been  looking  at.    We  are  told  that  ten 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       279 

different  physicians  had  pronounced  it  "  tuberculosis," 
but  of  course  there  is  no  certificate  to  that  effect.  Be- 
side this,  there  was  an  absolute  constipation.  Science 
and  Health,  the  patient  assures  us,  was  the  absolute 
cure  of  both  of  these  serious  complaints.  She  ''ac- 
quired a  better  understanding  "  of  the  book ;  though 
what  there  is  in  it  hard  to  understand,  is  really  a 
mystery.  But  she  "  endeavored  to  put  into  practice  " 
what  she  had  learned.  This  is  another  mystery;  it 
seems  to  mean  not  to  put  into  practice  the  drugging 
previously  resorted  to.  Doing  nothing  at  all  does  not 
seem  to  require  much  "  endeavor."  At  any  rate,  after 
three  months,  the  bowels  were  in  better  order  than  ever 
before ;  but  she  "  had  always  suffered  more  or  less 
from  bowel  trouble."  "  Now,"  we  don't  know  how 
long  it  took,  "  they  are  normally  active."  "  My  lungs," 
she  says,  "  are  now  sound."  We  must  confess  that  we 
should  like  to  have  scientific  medical  certificates  as  to 
the  state  of  her  lungs  before  the  cure  and  afterwards. 
Nothing  is  said,  for  instance,  about  the  "  sputa,"  and, 
indeed,  the  patient  herself  only  says  that  she  had 
"  weak  lungs."  But  we  all  know  that  the  progress  of 
even  real  tuberculosis  is  sometimes  arrested,  and  that 
what  remains  of  the  lungs  becomes  sound. 

Case  56. — "  Severe  Eczema  Destroyed."  This  is 
also  a  good  case.  Eczema  is,  no  doubt,  an  obstinate 
malady ;  though  we  personally  know  of  cases  in  which 
it  has  been  cured  by  prayer,  in  a  few  days,  though 
medical  treatment  had  been  fruitless.  The  strange 
thing  about  this  one  is  that  the  Bible  alone  did  no 
good  in  twenty-eight  years;  but  Science  and  Health 
ivith  the -Bible  obtained  the  result  ''in  less  than  a 
week," 

Case  57. — ''Science  and  Health  a  Priceless  Boon." 


28o        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

Here  we  get  back  a  little  into  the  more  ordinary  lines. 
The  word  ''  priceless  "  seems  not  to  be  rigorously  ac- 
curate, but  we  will  not  be  too  critical  about  a  little 
thing  like  that.  This  patient  had,  just  when  we  are 
not  told,  "  paralysis  of  the  bowels,  frequent  sick  head- 
aches with  unutterable  agony,  and  my  mortal  career 
was  nearly  brought  to  an  end  by  a  malignant  type  of 
yellow  fever."  This  one  seems  not  to  have  been  an 
'*  error,"  and  the  doctors,  who  probably  were  called 
in,  might  have  been  given  some  credit  for  curing  it. 
But  the  old  "  glasses  "  come  in  for  a  word  of  censure. 
The  use  of  them  "  was  proven  needless "  and  they 
were  laid  aside. 

*'  Mrs.  Eddy,"  we  are  told,  *'  has  made  Scripture 
reading  a  well  of  comfort  to  me.  By  her  interpreta- 
tion, the  Svay  of  the  Lord  is  made  straight  to  me 
and  mine.'  "  It  certainly  does  make  the  way  of  the 
Lord  more  intelligible,  if  one  can  cut  out  nearly  all 
of  it,  and  have  the  small  remnant  interpreted  in  a 
sense  that  you  fancy,  which  is  very  different  from 
the  one  that  it  naturally  conveys. 

Case  58. — "  A  Critic  Convinced."  This  case  can 
hardly  be  called  one  of  disease  at  all,  though  we  are 
told  that  "  by  the  study  of  the  book,  and  the  resultant 
understanding  of  my  relation  to  God,  I  was  healed  of 
a  disease  with  which  I  had  been  afflicted  from  child- 
hood." The  *'  relation  to  God  "  referred  to  must  have 
been  that  the  patient  was  not  created  by  God,  but 
was  God  or  "  Mind  "  (herself  or  himself)  ;  for  that  is 
what  the  book  teaches.  The  disease  is  not  specified, 
but  perhaps  it  was  simply  that  of  getting  old ;  and  of 
course  it  became  plain  that  this  was  impossible  for 
God. 

Case  59.—"  Born  Again."     This  lady  tells  us  that 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       281 

?he  was  "  reared  from  childhood  in  an  intellectual 
atmosphere,  my  paternal  grandfather  having  been  an 
orthodox  minister  of  the  old  school  for  forty  years, 
and  my  father  a  deep  student,  ever  seeking  for  the 
truth  of  all  tilings."  Perhaps  he  was  one  of  those 
of  whom  St.  Paul  writes  to  Timothy,  who  are  "  ever 
learning,  and  never  attaining  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
truth"  (2  Tim.  iii.  7).  At  any  rate  she  also  "began 
early  to  ponder  and  to  study  into  the  meaning  of 
life,"  which  any  little  catechism  could  have  taught  her, 
and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  "  though  God  probably 
existed  in  some  remote  place,  still  it  was  impossible 
to  connect  Him  with  my  present  living."  This  was 
quite  an  original  result  of  the  pondering,  hitherto  not 
reached  by  any  Christian ;  or,  so  far  as  we  are  aware, 
by  anyone  whatever.  But  some  "  dear  friend  "  left 
Science  and  Health  on  the  piano  one  day,  containing 
the  well-known  and  universally  accepted  doctrine  of 
the  spirituality  and  omnipresence  of  God.  She  ''  saw 
that  she  must  get  the  right  understanding  of  God !  " 

Probably  everyone  of  her  acquaintance  believed  this 
about  God,  but  Mrs.  Eddy  had  stated,  that  for  the 
establishing  of  health  (the  only  important  thing  in  life, 
of  course)  one  must  not  only  believe  this,  but  needs 
to  "  understand  "  it.  So  she,  "  with  head  bowed  in 
prayer,  waited  with  longing  intensity  for  some 
answer  "  to  make  her  understand  it.  ''  Plow  long  I 
waited,  I  do  not  know,"  she  says,  "  but  suddenly,  like 
a  wonderful  burst  of  sunlight  after  a  storm,  came 
clearly  this  thought,  'Be  still  and  know  that  I  am  God' 
(Ps.  xlvi.  10.  King  James  \>rsion).  I  held  my 
breath — deep  into  my  hungering  thought  sank  the  in- 
finite meaning  of  that  I."  Isn't  this  simply  sickening, 
to  have  all  this  sentimentality  about  a  truth  which  we 


282       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

all  joyfully  receive,  and  to  imagine  that  it  was  a  mys- 
terious "  understanding "  which  Mrs.  Eddy's  book 
brought  to  her! 

Case  60. — "  A  Restless  Sense  of  Existence  De- 
stroyed." This  patient  had  lots  of  diseases.  "  Ul- 
ceration of  the  stomach  with  kindred  troubles  "  was 
one;  ''restless  sense  of  existence"  (a  new  disease) 
another ;  "  agnosticism  "  a  third.  The  doctors  did 
not  try  to  treat  the  last  two,  but  of  course  (as  usual 
in  Christian  Science  cases)  the  attending  physician 
declared  that  on  account  of  the  first,  "  I  could  not  live 
but  a  short  time."  "  But  the  disease  was  dissipated 
into  nothingness"  (its  original  condition,  probably) 
"  through  Christian  Science  "  No  doctor's  certificate, 
of  course. 

Case  61. — "  Morally  and  Physically  Healed."  This, 
again,  is  a  case  of  glasses ;  which,  however,  the 
patient,  declined  to  wear,  and  ascribes  his  getting  along, 
up  to  date,  without  them,  to  Christian  Science.  He 
was  also  "  healed  of  another  ailment  which  had  been 
with  me  all  my  life,  and  which  was  believed  to  be 
inherited."  We  have  no  idea  what  it  was.  Also  "  pro- 
fanity, the  use  of  tobacco,  a  very  quick  temper,"  etc. 
Unusually  shallow  water  we  are  getting  into  now  as 
we  get  near  the  shore,  or  end  of  the  cases. 

Case  62. — "  Health  and  Understanding  Gained." 
In  this  case  there  seems  to  have  been  nothing  what- 
ever even  alleged  as  being  the  matter;  it  was  only 
that  the  gentleman  was  afraid  that  perhaps  some  time 
there  might  be. .  He  thought,  however,  which  must 
have  been  quite  cheering,  that  he  "  knew  a  material 
remedy  for  every  ill."  He  bought,  however,  for  an 
extra  safeguard,  a  copy  of  Science  and  Health ;  and, 
strangely  as  it  seems  to  us,  "  saw  that  if  the  Bible 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       283 

was  true,  Science  and  Health  must  also  be  true."  To 
ourselves  it  seems  rather  the  other  way ;  for  Mrs. 
Eddy's  chief  aim,  in  her  ''  Key  to  the  Scriptures," 
at  any  rate,  is  evidently  to  show  that  the  small  por- 
tion of  them  to  which  it  is  applied  is  false ;  as  we 
have  already  seen. 

Case  63. — ''  An  Ever  Present  Help  Found."  Here 
we  find  near  the  start  the  strange  statement,  often 
noticeable,  that  ''  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  I  came  across 
a  great  deal  of  thought  that  was  not  readily  under- 
stood at  the  first  reading."  We  suppose  that  he  means 
"  swallowed,"  rather  than  *'  understood."  Understand- 
ing it  seems  to  be  easy  enough.  But  to  accustom  us  to 
swallow  everything,  however  difficult,  he  gives  us  one 
of  the  hardest  yearns  that  we  have  yet  come  across. 
He  spins  it  out  to  some  length,  but  a  short  abridgment 
may  suffice,  so  perhaps  it  may  be  well  to  give  it,  as 
follows. 

In  the  course  of  his  carpenter  work,  he  was  acci- 
dently  hit  by  a  bit  of  wood,  and  found  by  his  hand 
that  there  "  were  two  wounds,  one  on  the  lock  of  the 
jaw,  and  another  forward,  as  big  as  a  dollar,  on  the 
cheek  bone."  Being  a  "  Scientist,"  he  knew  that  no 
real  harm  could  happen  in  the  "  realm  of  Divine 
Love"  (that  is  the  correct  phrase,  we  believe),  so  he 
"  treated  "  the  imaginary  injury  in  the  usual  "  scien- 
tific "  way,  and  "  paid  no  more  attention  to  the  mat- 
ter," but,  as  he  narrates  it,  ''  went  to  bed,  and  slept  all 
night  until  near  daylight,  when  a  pain  on  the  right 
side  awoke  me."  This,  as  we  understand,  was  the 
side  which  had  not  been  struck  by  the  bit  of  wood. 
It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  bit  of  wood  must  have 
gone  right  through  the  left  cheek  and  also  wounded 
the  right  one.     But  he  has  stated  that  "  bouncing  off 


284        TJic  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

my  left  cheek,"  it  *'  fell  about  twenty  feet  off  on  the 
snow."  It  must,  then,  have  bounced  off  the  snozv 
(snow  is  not  usually  so  elastic)  on  to  his  right  cheek. 
This  was  certainly  carrying  oiit  very  literally  Our 
Lord's  command  ''  to  him  that  striketh  thee  on  the 
one  cheek,  offer  also  the  other."  So  he  found  that  he 
had  to  "  treat  "  the  right  cheek  also,  after  which,  as 
he  tells  us,  he  '*  went  to  sleep  again."  Well,  this  is 
probably  all  right.  But  now  comes  the  astonishing 
part.  He  tells  us :  ''I  never  lost  an  hour  from  the 
hurt,  though  I  found  out  that  my  jaiv  zvas  broken!" 

Now,  my  dear  sir,  it  seems  to  us  that  you  are  going 
a  little  too  far ;  rather,  in  fact,  beyond  the  limit.  We 
have  swallowed  without  a  murmur  the  story  of  the 
bit  of  wood  C  just  a  small  wooden  wedge  "  as  he  told 
us)  hitting  both  cheeks,  the  left  one  in  two  places,  as 
we  have  also  been  distinctly  informed;  but  when  we 
are  told  that  after  the  breaking  of  the  jaw,  which 
injury  no  doctor  seems  to  have  even  looked  at,  all  that 
remained  to  show  for  the  accident  was  "  a  little  red 
spot  on  the  cheek  "  (which  of  the  two  we  don't  know), 
"  and  the  lumps  on  the  bone,  which  have  long  since 
disappeared,"  we  are  obliged  to  say :  "  Tell  that  to 
the  marines  (or  other  scientists)  ;  but  don't  expect  an 
ordinary  matter  of  fact  person  to  believe  it." 

Probably  he  had  no  such  expectation ;  for  this 
case,  like  all  the  others,  was  published  for  the  special 
edification  of  "  Scientists,"  not  for  the  vulgar  herd. 
But  as  it  was  liable  to  be  read  by  anyone  who  could 
afford  to  buy  the  book,  or  who  might  have  succeeded 
in  getting  the  loan  of  it,  it  seems  that  it  might  have 
been  advisable  for  Mrs.  Eddy  to  "  censor  "  it  before 
the  book  appeared.  And  the  worst  of  it  is,  that  it 
tempts  one  to  lose  confidence  in  the  other  contribu- 


The  Triitli  About  Chrisfiaii  Science       285 

tions  to  "  science,"  which  otherwise  might  have  been 
accepted.  But  perhaps  the  idea  was  that  they  would 
prepare  us  for  it. 

Case  64. — "  Many  Physical  and  Mental  Troubles 
Overcome."  This  is  quite  a  come  down  from  the  last 
one,  though  if  we  had  not  read  that,  it  would  have 
been  pretty  fair.  This  lady  tells  us,  after  a  "  mental 
conflict "  so  great  that  "  she  commenced  reading 
(Science  and  Health)  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  peace, 
had  a  very  serious  eruption  on  her  face,  which  had 
been  there  for  two  years.  We  had  consulted  several 
physicians,  and  used  every  remedy  suggested  to  eradi- 
cate it,  but  they  proved  useless."  The  last  physician 
as  she  tells  us,  as  the  other  ones  had  failed,  concluded 
that  it  was  not  worth  while  to  try,  and  "  pronounced 
it  tuberculosis  of  the  skin  and  incurable." 

"  A  few  weeks,"  the  patient  tells  us,  "  after  I  com- 
menced reading,  I  was  amazed  to  see  it  almost  healed 
over,  and  to-day  my  cheek  is  perfectly  smooth,  while 
the  scar  is  disappearing."  Of  course,  one  can't  get 
any  more  facts  in  this  case;  because,  as  in  all  the 
others,  first-hand  statements  from  the  doctors  are  not 
given. 

Case  65.— ''A  New  Life  Gained."  This  case  is 
simply  that  a  young  man  got  over  the  desire  for  liquor 
and  tobacco  by  "  a  few  weeks  study  of  Science  and 
Health,  together  with  the  Bible,  and  without  other 
help ;  "  and  that  "  ten  years  have  passed  and  these 
appetites  have  never  returned."  But  there  is  nothing 
at  all  in  the  Bible  against  a  moderate  use  of  ''  liquor." 
if  wine  is  included  under  that  name;  and  nothing 
whatever  about  tobacco.  Nor  does  Science  and  Health 
have  anything  particular  about  either.  But  the  con- 
tributor of  this  case  asks :   ''  How  can  we  estimate  the 


286       The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

value  of  a  book,  the  study  of  which  brings  such  trans- 
formation and  regeneration  ?  Only  as  we  endeavor  to 
live,  and  strive  to  practice  what  it  teaches,  can  we 
begin  to  pay  our  debt  to  God,  and  to  her  whom  He 
has  sent  to  make  plain  to  human  understanding  the 
life  and  teaching  of  Christ  Jusus."  Really,  one  w^ould 
think  that  Science  and  Health,  and  also  the  Bible,  were 
mainly  occupied  with  the  subjects  of  liquor  and 
tobacco.  Perhaps  there  might  be  a  word  or  two,  here 
and  there,  about  playing  a  game  of  cards,  or  writing 
letters  on  Sunday. 

Case  66. — "  A  Voice  from  England."  This  is  rather 
amusing,  in  a  way.  "  Glasses  "  again  appear  on  the 
scene.  "  I  obtained  a  copy  of  Science  and  Health,  and 
before  a  week  had  passed  I  realized  that  if  God  was 
my  all,  I  needed  no  glasses."  The  same  reason  would 
seem  to  show  that  she  needed  no  eyes.  The  testimony 
of  the  material  senses,  as  we  know,  is  never  of  any 
value,  with  or  without  glasses. 

Case  67. — "  Depraved  Appetites  Overcome."  Here 
again  we  have  Christian  Science  alleged  as  a  cure  for 
tobacco,  either  chewing  or  smoking,  for  the  drink  habit, 
for  profanity,  and  indeed  everything  in  general.  An 
"  inordinate  love  of  money  "  is  mentioned  as  one  of 
the  ''  lesser  ills."  St.  Paul,  however,  says  that  "  the 
love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evils"  (i  Tim.  vi. 
10).  We  often  notice  that  "  scientists"  are  not  very 
familiar  with  the  Bible,  now  that  it  is  superseded  by 
Mrs.  Eddy's  book. 

Case  68. — '*  Catarrh  of  the  Stomach  Healed."  This 
is  another  rather  funny  case.  The  patient,  we  are  in- 
formed, when  "  found-"  by  Christian  Science,  was 
"  suffering  from  catarrh  of  the  stomach,"  and  also  "  a 
slave  to  the  cigarette  habit  for  eighteen  years."     The 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       287 

last  statement  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt;  but  for 
the  first  a  doctor's  certificate  would  be  desirable, 
though  it  is  stated  that  "  I  doctored  continually ;"  but 
perhaps  it  was  on  patent  medicines.  Finally  he  (it 
was  probably  a  male  patient)  got  down  to  three  slices 
of  toast,  with  an  unknown  number  of  cigarettes,  as 
a  daily  allowance.  At  last  he  happened  to  go  to  a 
Christian  Science  church,  and  was  delighted  to  find 
that  "  so  great  a  number  actually  believed  that  God 
does  heal  the  sick  to-day."  If  he  had  taken  trouble 
to  inquire,  he  could  have  got  the  same  result  in  any 
other  church,  which  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  ad- 
vertise their  belief  on  this  point,  and  which  also  be- 
lieved that  people  really  did  sometimes  get  sick. 

"  I  had  dieted  so  long  and  sufifered  so  much,"  the 
account  continues,  "  that  I  had  a  morbid  fear  of  food." 
But  when  he  "  had  reached  and  read,  that  neither  food 
nor  the  stomach,  without  the  consent  of  mortal  mind, 
can  make  one  suffer,"  he  was  so  far  gone  that  he 
actually  believed  it.  It  could,  of  course,  have  been 
easily  shown  up  as  false,  by  the  simple  experiment  of 
trying  a  good  dose  of  tartar  emetic;  indeed  even  a 
Welsh  rarebit,  if  his  stomach  complaint  had  any  actual 
existence,  would  probably  have  been  quite  enough. 
But  as  it  was  he  simply  took  some  rather  light  cakes ; 
and  as  they  proved,  of  course,  to  be  all  right,  he  was 
encouraged  to  venture  on  a  hearty  dinner. 

Case  6g. — "  Spinal  Disease  Healed."  All  that  we 
have  here  is  an  entirely  unsupported  statement  that 
"  I  have  been  healed  of  so-called  incurable  spinal 
disease  of  ten  years'  standing  by  studying  the  Bible  and 
Science  and  Health."  Comment  is  quite  unnecessary. 
Case  70. — ''  Many  Troubles  Overcome."  Here  we 
have  a  mysterious  "  organic  trouble,"  the  nature  of 


288        The  l^nith  'About  Christian  Science 

which  is  not  explained;  the  usual  "specialist"  comes 
in  as  a  matter  of  course ;  also  "  blurred  eyesight," 
and  "  fatigue."  At  the  end  we  meet  the  startling 
statement,  that  "through  reading  the  textbook  I  learned 
that  God  has  given  us  strength  to  do  all  we  have  to 
do."  Probably  it  is  meant,  "  all  that  He  wants  us  to 
do,"  But  why  go  to  the  ''  textbook  "  for  something 
that  no  one  ever  doubted?  Besides,  where  is  this 
found  in  the  "textbook?"  Oh,  this  one  is  too  silly 
to  go  on  further  with. 

Case  71. — "  Prejudice  Overcome."  This  case  is 
even  thinner  than  the  last.  "  I  was  healed  of  stomach 
trouble,  inward  weakness,  and  bilious  attacks."  Also 
of  the  idea  that  "  I  might  have  to  undergo  an  operation 
before  I  could  get  well;  "   no  reason  is  given  for  this. 

Case  yz. — "  A  Convincing  Testimony."  Instead  of 
this  being  specially  "  convincing,"  as  claimed,  it  seems 
to  be  decidedly  below  the  average.  It  principally 
consists  of  two  cases  in  which  a  baby  was  cured 
simply  by  the  mother  not  getting  alarmed,  and  indeed 
not  even  continuing  to  read  to  her  from  the  textbook, 
which  the  baby  could  not  be  expected  to  understand, 
but  by  just  letting  her  scream  to  her  heart's  content. 
"Croup,  whooping  cough,  tonsilitis,  etc.,  are  also 
vaguely  alleged  as  cured,  whether  by  the  same  heart- 
less treatment,  does  not  appear. 

Case  73. — "  Healed  Physically  and  Spiritually." 
This  case  is  of  a  very  humble  Tbut  also  as  it  would 
seem  a  rather  silly)  person  ;  whether  a  man  or  a  woman, 
does  not  clearly  appear.  These  characteristics  are 
chiefly  shown  in  a  difficulty  of  understanding  "  Chris- 
tian Science,"  particularly  the  "  scientific  statement  of 
being."  What  first  produced  an  effect  is  that  the 
patient,  who  had  a  "  fear  of  quick  consumption,"  after 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       289 

reading  the  "  textbook  "  on  the  way  to  work,  and  tak- 
ing a  nap  instead  of  going  out  to  luncheon  was  all 
right.  It  is  a  pity  that  (he  or  maybe  she  had  had  no 
opportunity  of  reading  the  true  "  scientific  statement 
of  being  "  in  sound  philosophical  works  ;  but  of  course 
(he  or  she)  was  as  badly  ofif  as  Mrs.  Eddy  in  that 
way. 

Naturally  enough,  *'  eyeglasses  "  come  to  the  front 
in  this  case,  as  in  .so  many  others.  The  patient's 
father  was  also  a  patient ;  patiently  starving  himself 
on  bran,  the  result  of  which  was  that  "  his  limbs 
seemed  so  cold  that  they  were  kept  wrapped  in 
blankets."  But  he  was  induced  by  the  junior  patient, 
who  did  not  feel  worthy  to  be  a  ''practitioner,"  and  only 
acted  in  that  capacity  because  the  father  would  have 
no  other,  to  read  Science  and  Health.  After  doing 
so  the  old  gentleman  made  up  his  mind  that  all  that 
he  needed  was  to  have  a  course  of  good  square  meals, 
instead  of  the  bran,  "  ate  whatever  he  wanted  and  used 
no  medicine  in  any  form."  "  After  two  treatments,  I 
received  word  from  him  that  he  was  healed  of  that 
bondage  of  thirty  years  standing."  The  treat  of  eat- 
ing "  whatever  he  wanted  "  was  probably  even  more 
effective  than  the  *'  treatments." 

Case  74. — "  A  Voice  from  the  South."  There  seems 
to  be  nothing  substantial  in  this,  only  a  value  statement 
that  "  through  this  reading  my  health  was  restored, 
and  I  was  healed  of  one  disease  that  has  been  called 
incurable  by  all  physicians."  We  have  another  illu- 
sion to  the  ''  blessing  of  having  the  spiritual  fact  of 
being  unfolded  to  me." 

Case  75. — "  Healed  After  Much  Suffering." 
Strangely  enough  in  this  case  "  patent  medicines  "  and 
"one  of  the  best  sanitariums  in  the  country"  actually  did 


290        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

some  good  in  this  case.  But  the  really  effective  thing 
was  to  find  by  reading  Science  and  Health  that  the 
"  dyspepsia  and  nervous  debility  "  must  be  "  errors," 
so,  thanks  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  who  really  has  done  some 
good  in  this  way,  they  were  healed  in  about  a 
week. 

Case  76.— "Through  Great  Tribulations."  This 
case  is  mostly  padding,  of  the  usual  "  scientific  "  kind. 
An  alleged  injury  to  the  spine  (no  doctor  mentioned) 
and  "  insomnia,"  were  the  trouble. 

Case  yy. — "  A  Helpful  Testimony."  In  this  case 
we  can  only  find  that  the  patient  had  "  six  years  of 
colds,  suffering  and  coughing,  and  supposed  consump- 
tion." But  her  Eddian  experience  was  remarkable. 
It  seems  to  have  started  with  Mrs.  Eddy's  parody  on 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  particularly  the  Father-Mother 
part.  The  "  truth  of  man's  spiritual  being  dawned  on 
my  consciousness."  Good  heavens,  how  had  she  been 
brought  up  ?  But  she  also  learned  that  "  she  was  not 
subject  to  mortal  laws,  as  I  have  been  taught  all  my 
life.  I  could  not  explain  how  I  knew  this,  but  I  knew 
it."  Again  the  wise  caution  occurs  to  us,  that  "  it  is 
better  not  to  know  so  much  than  to  know  so  much 
that  ain't  so."  If  she  had  jumped  into  Niagara  Falls, 
for  instance,  she  would  have  found  herself  "  subject 
to  mortal  laws,"  all  right.  But  so  far  as  we  are  in- 
formed, the  chief  proof  of  her  theory  is  that  for  "  ten 
years  she  has  not  had  to  lie  down  in  the  daytime  from 
any  sickness."  Isn't  it  astonishing  that  presumably 
rational  beings  can  write  such  stuff  as  this? 

Case  78. — "  Desire  for  Liquor  and  Tobacco  Disap- 
peared." There  is  absolutely  nothing  in  this  case,  ex- 
cept the  remarkable  statement  that  when  the  gentle- 
man  who   gives    it   to    us    first    heard    of    Christian 


The  Truth  "Abouf  Christian  Science       291 

Science,  "  drinking  and  smoking  were  his  comforters, 
and  he  had  no  other  companionship."  Rather  a  lonely 
life,  to  be  drinking  and  smoking  all  by  oneself  all 
the  time. 

"  When  I  began  to  read  Science  and  Health,  I  saw 
it  offered  something  substantial,"  he  says.  Well,  that 
is  a  funny  idea  to  have  of  it.  Drinking  and  smoking 
would  be  more  substantial,  to  one  accustomed  to  really 
intellectual  occupation,  than  Mrs.  Eddy's  vagaries. 
But  it  seems  he  gave  up  the  substance  for  the  shadow. 
Drinking  and  smoking  are  not  so  bad,  in  moderate 
limits,  for  serious  students,  especially  if  they  are  Ger- 
man. 

Case  79. — "An  Expression  of  Loving  Gratitude." 
Well,  we  are  getting  nearer  still  to  the  shore,  and  the 
water  gets  shallower  at  every  step.  Speaking  of  the 
book,  this  one  remarks  that  its  originality  was 
startling,  ''upsetting  my  preconceived  opinions  of  God, 
man  and  creation."  In  fact,  of  course,  there  is  no 
originality  whatever  in  it,  as  it  is  simply  a  sort  of 
amateur  statement  of  pantheism,  much  better  ex- 
pressed long  before.  Two  idiotic  remarks,  we  are 
told,  '*  especially  appealed  to  me,  namely,  'the  foun- 
dation of  mortal  discord  is  a  false  sense  of  man's 
origin,'  and  'for  right  reasoning,  there  should  be  but 
one  fact  before  the  thought,  namely,  spiritual  exist- 
ence.' " 

The  common  teaching  of  logic,  however,  is  that  two 
facts  are  needed  before  the  thought,  for  any  kind  of 
reasoning,  right  or  wrong;  that  is  to  say  two  premises, 
from  which  some  conclusion,  correct  or  incorrect,  is 
drawn.  But  this  stuff  is  too  great  a  strain  on  one's 
patience. 

Case    80. — "  Healed    of    Bright's    Disease."      This 


292        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

gentleman  tells  us  that  on  August  i8,  1902,  he  "  was 
taken  down  with  what  three  doctors  pronounced 
Bright's  disease,  and  they  stated  that  I  would  not  live 
a  year,  or  if  I  did  succeed  in  living  longer,  I  would  be 
menially  unbalanced."  It  seems  that  he  really  must 
have  misunderstood  these  doctors,  for  we  have  never 
heard  of  any  physician  making  statements  like  this, 
even  if  they  thought  so,  unless  they  wished  to  make 
the  patient  "  mentally  unbalanced,"  and  had  an  asylum 
in  their  control,  to  which  they  v/ished  to  send  him. 
But  nothing  of  the  kind  appears.  We  think  then  that 
this  case  may  be  reasonably  dismissed. 

Case  81.— ''Fibroid  Tumor  Destroyed."  All  that 
this  amounts  to  is  that  a  physician,  name  of  course  not 
given,  informed  the  lady  that  she  "  had  a  fibroid 
tumor,  wdiich  required  an  operation."  As  she  seems 
to  have  declined  the  operation,  it  cannot  be  ascertained 
whether  this  opinion  was  correct  or  not.  But  after 
a  considerable  time,  when  visiting  a  sister  in  Chicago 
and  feeling  quite  well,  it  was  determined  that  the 
"  tumor  is  gone,  for  God  never  made  it."  It  was  not, 
however,  ascertained  who  did  make  it.  Like  Topsy, 
apparently,  it  just  "  growed." 

Case  82. — "  Light  out  of  Darkness."  This  patient 
was,  it  appears,  "  filled  with  fear,  and  bound  down  by 
the  false  gods  of  this  v^^orld — sin,  disease  and 
poverty."  We  never  heard  these  called  "  gods  "  be- 
fore. Chronic  catarrh,  laryngitis  and  "  glasses  "  were 
the  chief  ones.  They  were  overcome,  of  course,  by 
reading  Science  and  Health;  we  are  not  told  what 
became  of  the  sin  and  the  poverty.  But  something  is 
said  about  having  life  more  abundantly,  so  perhaps 
the  poverty,  at  any  rate,  was  also  "  fixed  up  "  to  some 
extent. 


TJic  Truth  About  Christian  Science       2g^ 

Case  83. — "  A  Priceless  Boon."  We  had  another 
of  these,  it  seems  to  us,  before.  This  gentleman, 
it  seems,  learned  through  Science  and  Health,  for 
the  first  time,  that  man  is  the  image  and  likeness  of 
God.  Also  of  "  kidney  disease  and  rheumatism." 
Also  of  a  crooked  finger,  probably  the  result  of  the 
rheumatism,  and  of  a  bunch  in  his  foot.  The  last, 
it  seems,  required  ''  class  instruction,"  whatever  that 
may  be.  "  Profanity,  the  tobacco  habit,  and  a  bad 
temper,"  of  course. 

Case  84. — ''  Healed  of  Consumption  and  Asthma." 
Of  course  in  this  case  as  in  many  others,  medical 
evidence  would  be  specially  desirable,  but  is  not  forth- 
coming. We  are  always  somewhat  puzzled  as  to  what 
is  meant  when  the  patient  says,  "1  continued  to  study 
and  to  put  into  practice  the  teaching  as  best  I  knew," 
for  we  don't  see  what  study  a  shallow  book  like  the 
textbook  requires,  or  what  there  is  to  "  put  into 
practice,"  except  to  do  nothing  at  all;  though  this  is 
a  good  practice,  in  many  cases. 

Case  85. — "  A  Grateful  Testimony."  This  case 
is  specially  interesting  in  one  way,  as  indicating  that 
one  of  the  ''  gods  "  mentioned  in  No.  82,  that  is  to 
say,  ''  poverty,"  gets  relief  also,  sometimes.  But  all 
the  three,  sin,  sickness  and  poverty,  are  also  helped 
very  considerably  in  the  old-fashioned  Christian 
churches,  to  say  nothing  of  the  synagogues,  and  the 
many  charitable  institutions  which  have  been  inspired 
by  therii ;  so  that,  after  all,  we  may  be  able  to  get 
along  without  this  new  "  science  "  pretty  w^ell ;  or  at 
least  do  something  in  our  own  poor  unscientific  way, 
for  those  who  can't  afford  to  get  expensive  books, 
but  have  to  be  content  with  what  they  absolutely  need 
for  body  and  soul. 


294       ^^^^  Truth  About  Christian  Science 
GENERAL  REMARKS. 

We  have  now  gone  through  all  these  cases  of 
"fruitage,"  so-called;  that  is  to  say,  of  practical 
proofs  of  the  efficacy  of  "  Christian  Science."  It  is 
of  course  possible  that  in  some  of  them  the  belief 
of  the  patients  in  the  power  of  God  to  heal  the  sick 
without  the  use  of  drugs  or  surgery,  which  power 
every  Christian  acknowledges,  may  have  been  re- 
warded by  Him ;  and  such  a  result  would  be  specially 
likely  to  occur  in  a  materialistic  age  like  this,  when  the 
possibility  of  it  is  so  generally  denied,  not  only  by 
absolute  infidels,  but  by  non-Catholic  Christians,  who 
have  been  brought  up  to  believe  that  the  ''  age  of 
miracles "  has  passed.  Even  incipient  faith  might 
be  so  rewarded.  For  they  were  not  test  cases,  as  it 
were,  in  which  the  issue  lay  between  Eddian  ideas, 
and  normal  Christian  ones,  or  the  case  recorded  in  the 
Third  Book  of  Kings  (First  Book  in  the  King  James 
version),  eighteen  chapter,  where  it  lay  between  Elias 
(or  Elijah)  and  the  prophets  of  Baal.  Outside  of 
such  test  cases,  miracles  are  not  necessarily  restricted 
to  the  one  true  and  complete  faith,  as  we  see,  for  in- 
stance, in  the  casting  out  of  the  devil  from  the  daughter 
of  the  Syrophenician  woman,  recorded  in  Mark  vii. 

Some  of  the  cases,  however,  notably  the  one  which 
we  have  numbered  sixty-three,  we  think  that  most 
readers  will  simply  reject.  To  even  such,  however, 
the  remarks  just  made  can  still  be  applied.  Or  it  is  quite 
possible  that  the  merely  natural  encouragement  given 
to  a  patient  by  the  Eddian  idea  of  the  non-reality 
of  the  illness,  may  help  the  recovery  from  it,  how- 
ever real  it  may  have  been  to  begin  with.  Or,  lastly, 
in  some  of  the  cases  adduced  as  "  fruitage  "  in  the 


The  Tnifli  About  Christian  Science       295 

list  we  have  gone  over,  it  is  quite  probable  that  the 
disease  itself  may  have  been  merely  imaginary;  or,  in 
ether  words,  that  the  Eddian  diagnosis  of  it  as  unreal 
may  have  been  quite  correct.  A  physician  is  prac- 
tically obliged  to  construct  some  sort  of  disease,  if  the 
patient  insists  on  it,  answering  to  the  symptoms  given 
to  him  by  the  patient.  If  he  fails  to  do  so,  he  is  very 
likely  to  be  dismissed  as  incompetent. 

Of  course,  as  we  have  noticed  while  through 
the  cases,  the  vague  certificates  to  their  reality  given  by 
unnamed  physicians  are  of  very  little  value.  Their 
professional  reputation  for  skill  or  knowledge  does  not 
suffer  from  them,  as  long  as  it  is  not  known  who 
they  were.  And  even  if  they  were  known  personally 
to  the  others  who  had  attended  the  case,  still  no  doc- 
tor likes  to  say  that  another  is  absolutely  incorrect  in 
pronouncing  a  disease  as  real,  though  he  himself  does 
not  believe  it  to  be  so;  so  that  a  mere  agreement  as 
to  its  reality  among  those  examining  it  does  not  amount 
to  very  much.  And  it  is  noticeable  that  in  some  cases 
the  opinions  of  the  doctors  who  had  attended  the 
patient  were  considerably  divergent. 

Lastly,  we  may  remark,  as  a  climax,  that  medical 
certificates  as  to  the  reality  of  a  disease  are  in  them- 
selves rather  destructive  than  constructive,  as  far  as 
Eddian  Science  is  concerned.  It  can  get  along,  really, 
rather  better  without  them  than  with  them.  All  that 
has  any  bearing  on  this  supposed  science  would  be 
for  the  patient  himself  to  testify  that  he  fell  sick  be- 
fore he  took  a  course  of  healing  by  it,  and  that  he 
felt  well  after  he  had  taken  it. 

But  as  to  proving  to  anyone  else,  or  even  to  him- 
self, that  he  had  been  cured  by  it,  the  testimony  of 
the   material   senses   must  be   resorted   to.     If   it   is 


296        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

alleged,  for  instance,  that  a  tumor  existed  before,  and 
has  now  disappeared,  no  Scientist,  not  even  the  patient 
himself,  can  regard  this  statement  as  reliable;  for 
every  true  Scientist  regards  this  the  testimony  of  the 
senses  as  entirely  deceptive.  Nor  does  it  amount  to 
anything  that  he  feels  better  than  he  did.  For 
here  is  simply  the  testimony  of  the  material  senses 
again. 

Nor  can  anyone  not  a  Scientist  be  at  all  impressed 
in  favor  of  Christian  Science  by  the  alleged  cure.  For 
if  he  is  to  be  impressed  by  it,  it  must  be  because  he 
still  is  under  the  delusion  that  there  v^as  some  real 
disease  under  which  he  was  laboring.  But  as  long 
as  he  continues  in  this  delusion,  he  cannot  believe  in 
Christian  Science.  And  if  he  gets  over  the  delusion, 
that  he  was  sick,  and  becomes  a  Scientist,  it  becomes 
impossible  to  prove  that  he  was  cured,  by  any  evi- 
dence that  he  can  now  accept,  as  we  have  just  seen. 
It  is  hard,  then,  to  understand  for  what  kind  of  people 
these  cures  are  intended  to  impress,  or  why  they  are 
published  at  all.  Certainly  for  none  who  have  logical 
minds.  But  there  are  lots  of  people  whose  minds  are 
not  logical ;  so  there  may  be  a  good  many,  after  all, 
who  will  think  them  quite  convincing. 

We  cannot  conclude  this  review  of  Mrs.  Eddy's 
absurd  book  without  briefly  showing  not  only  its 
absurdity  and  illogicality,  but  also  its  destructiveness 
to  all  real  piety  or  spirituality.  This  has  already 
been  shown,  perhaps,  sufficiently ;  but  as  its  impiety 
is  so  much  worse  than  its  absurdity  and  folly,  more 
prominence  should  have  been  given  to  this  special 
characteristic  of  the  book,  and  of  the  whole  Eddian 
idea. 

This    impiety    consists,    fundamentally,    in    its    re- 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       297 

garding  of  sin  as  being  merely  an  "  error  of  mortal 
mind,"  having  no  real  existence,  instead  of  being,  as 
it  actually  is,  a  real  and  terrible  disease  of  the  pas- 
sions and  of  the  will.  The  actual  fact,  which  one 
does  not  need  to  be  a  Christian  (or  to  believe  in  the 
original  sin,  which  is  its  real  and  original  cause) 
to  recognize,  is  evident  as  a  fact  to  all  who  will  open 
their  eyes  and  see  things  as  they  actually  are.  Even 
those  who  choose  to  ignore  its  cause,  cannot  ignore 
the  effect;  they  cannot  possibly  deny  that  in  man,  as 
actually  at  present  constituted,  there  is  a  prevailing 
tendency  to  disobey  the  clearest  commands  or  pro- 
hibitions of  his  Creator,  and  made  known  to  him  by 
his  conscience.  Inanimate  and  even  brute  nature  con- 
form to  the  laws  given  them  by  God  most  perfectly ; 
man  alone,  of  all  that  we  see  around  us,  rebels  against 
them.  This  fatal  discord  or  want  of  harmony  (to 
use  an  Eddian  term)  cannot  be  overcome  by  deny- 
ing it;  indeed  it  cannot  be  overcome  in  any  way  by 
man's  unaided  strength,  however  he  may  wish  or 
struggle  to  do  so.  Indeed,  it  will  naturally  not  only 
persevere,  but  become  continually  worse  and  worse, 
in  spite  of  all  our  efforts,  unless  the  Almighty  Him- 
self comes  to  our  rescue. 

True  religion  holds  that  He  actually  has  done  so, 
by  means  of  the  atonement  or  reconciliation  made 
by  Our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  Who  as  St. 
Paul  tells  us,  ''  gave  Himself  for  us,  that  He  might 
redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and  might  cleanse  to 
Himself  a  people  acceptable,  a  pursuer  of  good 
works  "(Titus  ii.  14).  But  we  have  our  own  share 
to  do  to  bring  about  this  blessed  result.  We  must 
believe  in  this  Redeemer,  must  love  Him,  and  con- 
tinually   pray    to    Him,    that    He    will    give    us    the 


298       The  Truth  "About  Christian  Science 

strength  to  accomplish  this  great  work  which  is  His, 
but  with  which  He  requires  us  to  cooperate.  The 
true  Christian  Hfe  is  one  of  constant  faith,  and  love, 
and  prayer,  directed  to  this  end.  And  without  it  our 
Redemption  will  not  be  accomplished. 

All  this,  however,  this  so-called  Christian  (or  more 
correctly  antichristian)  Science  entirely  denies.  Ex- 
alting itself  to  the  throne  of  God,  it  tells  us  that  we 
have  no  need  of  His  help;  that  sin  is  no  danger  to 
us,  except  by  our  false  belief  in  it;  that  if  we  abandon 
this  belief,  sin  will  trouble  us  no  more.  And  that 
may  be  true,  it  may  cease  to  trouble  us ;  but  it  will  be 
there  all  the  same. 

And  it  takes  from  us  our  indispensable  means  for 
overcoming  it.  The  very  first  step  to  overcoming 
it  is  the  confession  that  we  are  in  ourselves  sinners, 
and  in  the  power  of  sin,  and  that  escape  from  this 
power  is  impossible  without  the  help  of  God.  It  even 
will  not  allow  us  to  ask  for  that  help,  or  to  ask  Him 
to  "  deliver  us  from  evil,"  but  presumptuously  tells 
us  instead,  in  its  parody  on  Our  Lord's  own  prayer, 
that  ''  He  delivers  us  from  sin,  disease  and  death," 
whether  we  ask  Him  to  do  so  or  not. 

It  strikes  at  the  very  root  and  foundation  of  all  the 
Christian  virtues,  that  is  to  say  of  humility,  by  which 
each  one  of  us  confesses  that  "  I  have  sinned  through 
my  fault,  through  my  fault,  through  my  most  grievous 
fault."  And  by  striking  at  and  demolishing  this 
foundation,  it  makes  all  building  on  it  impossible.  It 
substitutes  for  it  an  overweening  pride,  which  even 
calls  it  a  delusion  to  think  that  we  are  not  just  as 
good  as  God  Himself.  It  says  a  great  deal  about  the 
love  of  God  for  us  on  His  part,  but  does  not  ask 
from  us  any  love  on  our  part  for  Him ;  not,  at  any 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       299 

rate,  any  of  the  only  kind  of  love  which  it  becomes 
us  to  show,  that  of  the  creature  for  the  Creator,  of 
sinners  for  the  Sinless  One.  It  destroys  all  piety, 
which  cannot  exist,  even  in  the  lowest  degree,  with- 
out humility. 

Of  all  the  soul-destroying  errors  which  have  ever 
come  from  the  powers  of  evil  on  poor  humanity,  this 
is  the  most  dangerous,  and  the  most  after  Satan's 
own  heart.  It  is  the  one  with  which  he  has  most 
sympathy,  for  it  is  his  own  fatal  one  of  pride,  and  car- 
ried to  a  greater  development  than  it  was  ever  found 
among  mankind  before. 

It  is  also  most  dangerous,  because  it  has,  super- 
ficially, such  an  appearance  of  good;  particularly  be- 
cause in  those  who  are  victims  to  its  delusions,  it 
presents  such  a  fair-seeming  counterfeit  of  the  joy 
and  peace  which  Christ  promised  to  His  true  fol- 
lowers. "  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always,"  St.  Paul 
wrote  to  the  Philippians  (Phil.  iv.  4).  So  this  false 
encouragement  which  this  doctrine  gives  to  those  who 
embrace  it  has  naturally  a  tendency  to  make  them 
always  cheerful  and  happy.  It  is,  of  course,  no  won- 
der that  it  should  have  such  an  effect.  The  idea  that 
God  has  nothing  but  good  to  give  to  us,  no  matter 
whether  we  deserve  it  or  not,  has  an  effect  very  sim- 
ilar to  that  caused  to  be  felt  by  those  who  hold  the 
doctrine  that  the  sure  promise  of  eternal  salvation 
which  those  who  have  once  laid  hold  on  it  by  "ex- 
periencing religion,"  as  the  phrase  is,  cannot  in  any 
way  be  lost ;  or  the  doctrine,  as  it  is  called,  of  inamis- 
sible  justification.  This  idea,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
once  thoroughly  adopted  by  anyone  in  his  own  indi- 
vidual case,  naturally  tends  to  n^ake  him  content  to 
suff'er  all  the  pains  and  tribulations  of  this  life,  sup- 


30O        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

ported  by  the  absolute  certainty  that,  no  matter  what 
his  conduct  may  be  in  this  world,  he  is  one  of  the  elect, 
and  is  sure  to  enter  immediately  after  death  into 
eternal  happiness,  inconceivably  surpassing  any  that 
can  be  obtained  here. 

This  sort  of  confidence,  as  is  quite  plain  to  all 
who  will  look  at  the  Scripture  cannot  be  felt,  except 
by  means  of  a  special  revelation  granted  to  a  very  few. 
Even  St.  Paul  himself  did  not  feel  it  till  at  the  very 
end,  when  his  martyrdom  was,  as  we  may  say,  in 
plain  sight.  He  writes  in  the  preceding  chapter  of  this 
same  epistle  to  the  Philippians:  "If  by  any  means 
I  may  attain  to  the  resurrection  which  is  from  the 
dead.  Not  as  though  I  had  attained,  or  were  already 
perfect;  but  I  follow  after,  if  I  may  by  any  means 
apprehend,  wherein  I  am  also  apprehended  by  Christ 
Jesus.  Brethren,  I  do  not  count  myself  to  have  ap- 
prehended. But  one  thing  I  do :  forgetting  the  things 
that  are  behind,  and  stretching  forth  myself  to  those 
that  are  before,  I  press  towards  the  mark,  to  the  prize 
of  the  supernal  vocation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ." 

And  again  he  says  (i  Cor.  ix.  27)  :  ''  But  I  chastise 
my  body,  and  bring  it  into  subjection ;  lest  perhaps, 
when  I  have  preached  to  others,  I  myself  should  be- 
come a  castaway." 

It  was  also  at  the  time  of  his  second  epistle  to  Tim- 
othy, iust  before  his  death,  that  he  ventured  to  say: 
"  I  am  even  now  ready  to  be  sacrificed ;  and  the  time 
of  my  dissolution  is  at  hand.  I  have  fought  a  good 
fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the 
faith.  As  to  the  rest,  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown 
of  justice,  which  the  Lord,  the  just  judge,  will  render 
to  me  in  that  day  "(2  Tim.  iv.  6-8). 

But  we  are  not,  just  now,  blaming  the  comparatively 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       301 

reasonable  assurance  which  the  Christian  may  have  of 
his  final  perseverance^  but  rather  the  absolutely  pre- 
sumptuous one  coming  from  this  so-called  "  Christian 
Science."  The  Scientist,  as  soon  as  he  becomes  a 
Scientist,  differs  widely  from  the  great  Apostle  to  the 
Gentiles ;  and  the  difference  is  in  his  own  favor.  St. 
Paul  does  not  count  himself  to  have  apprehended. 
But  the  *'  Scientist  "  has  apprehended,  or  learned  from 
his  "  science,"  that  he  is  really  identified  with  God, 
and  has  all  the  power  of  the  Almighty  at  his  com- 
mand. 

But  there  is  one  respect,  beside,  in  which  he  differs 
still  more  fatally  from  St.  Paul.  St.  Paul  did  not 
expect,  did  not  even  desire,  to  be  freed  from  sufferings 
in  this  world.  But  he  thought  these  a  blessing,  not 
a  suffering.  He  exclaims :  ''  That  which  is  at  present 
momentary  and  light  of  our  tribulation,  worketh  for 
us  above  measure  exceedingly  an  eternal  weight  of 
glory." 

And  it  is  well  known  that  St.  Paul  suffered  from  the 
very  troubles  that  "  Science  "  is  so  determined  to  free 
us  from,  that  is  to  say,  from  bodily  diseases ;  "  in- 
firmities," he  calls  them.  But  all  he  wants  to  say 
about  them  is :  "  Gladly  therefore  will  I  glory  in  my 
infirmities,  that  the  power  of  Christ  may  dwell  in 
me." 

The  "  Scientist,"  however,  wants  and  expects  the 
power  of  Christ,  and  of  His  "  science,"  to  come  to 
his  aid,  not  in  the  realm  of  eternity,  but  right  here 
and  now,  and  for  even  the  smallest  ailments;  and 
not  for  the  glory  of  God,  but  just  simply  for  his  own 
personal  comfort.  He  presumptuously  imagines  that 
he  has  a  right  to  it,  that  nothing  ought  to  go  wrong 
"  in  the  realm  of  Divine  Love."     If  God  loves  me, 


302        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

if  I  am  identical  with  God,  he  will  say,  I  ought  not 
to,  and  shall  not  suffer  anything  at  all. 

And  God,  seeing  that  he  is  unwilling  to  suffer,  and 
determined  not  to,  may  perhaps  free  him  from  what 
the  saints  have  regarded  as  a  blessing,  and  give  him 
the  boon  on  which  his  heart  is  set.  This,  however, 
only  makes  him  all  the  more  confident  that  He  will 
always  do  so.  He  ought  to  regard  it  as  a  sign  not  of 
salvation,  but  of  reprobation;  just  the  same  as  the 
giving  of  riches  to  those  who  work  and  labor  for  them 
simply  for  their  own  sake.  And  the  smug  self- 
satisfaction  and  joy  which  may  be  seen  on  the  faces 
of  those  whose  desires  for  the  happiness  of  this  world, 
whether  it  be  in  the  way  of  health,  riches  or  any- 
thing else,  are  granted,  are  taken  by  themselves  and 
by  others,  perhaps,  as  indications  that  their  religion 
is  the  true  one ;  whereas  they  ought  rather  to  have 
an  opposite  meaning. 

True  Christian  joy,  however,  the  ''  true  rejoicing 
in  the  Lord  always  "  of  which  St.  Paul  speaks  in  the 
words  already  quoted,  has  always  its  adnr'xaire  of 
sorrow.  He  describes  it  himself  more  fully  to  the 
Corinthians :  "  As  sorrowful,"  he  says,  "  yet  always 
rejoicing;  as  needy,  yet  enriching  many;  as  having 
nothing,  and  possessing  all  things  "  (2  Cor.  vi.  10). 

Where  does  the  sorrowing  come  in  ?  It  comes,  in  the 
first  place,  from  the  fear  which  can  never  be  entirely 
banished,  that,  after  all,  one  may  fail  to  possess  God, 
for  Whom  all  else  has  been  sacrificed.  This  promise 
that  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is  (i  John  iii.  2)  will 
hold  as  long  as  we  do  not  forfeit  it  by  our  own  per- 
verse will;  but  how  can  we  be  sure  that  we  shall 
not?  One  mortal  sin,  unrepented,  is  enough  to  take 
it   from  us ;    and  who  can  be  sure  that  he  will  not 


The  Truth  About  Chiisiian  Science       303 

fall?  That  was  what  St.  Paul  was  afraid  of,  up  to 
the  last  moment :  "  lest  perhaps,  when  I  have  preached 
to  others,  I  myself  should  become  a  castaway." 

And  even  if  we  were  sure  of  our  perseverance, 
the  Scripture  warns,  "  be  not  without  fear  about  sin 
forgiven"  (Ecclus.  v.  5).  Even  though  forgiven,  it 
is  still  a  danger  to  us.  The  same  root  which  gave 
rise  to  it,  is  still  in  force  in  us;  it  is  only  scotched, 
not  killed,  and  it  is  more  likely  to  spring  up  again 
in  us  than  if  it  had  never  showed  its  evil  head ;  par- 
ticularly if  it  be  our  ruling  passion,  as  it  is  called. 

But  even  had  we  risen  to  such  a  height  of  virtuous 
habit  that  this  was  not  to  be  feared,  still  there  are 
the  sins  of  others,  and  especially  those  for  which  we 
may  be  to  blame,  which  may  well  cause  the  good  Chris- 
tian sadness  and  anxiety.  This  shadow  of  sin,  even 
if  the  reality  be  gone,  cuts  off  to  some  extent  the  full 
light  of  God,  from  our  souls,  as  long  as  we  remain  in 
this  sinful  world.  And  the  saints  feel  it  more  than 
any   others. 

This  world  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  the  place  for  us 
to  be  thoroughly  filled  with  joy.  Every  joy,  even  the 
most  spiritual  that  we  can  have  here,  is  obscured,  more 
or  less,  by  this  cloud  of  sin  which  rests  upon  it.  We 
cannot,  indeed,  quite  understand  how,  even  in  heaven, 
this  cloud  can  entirely  pass  away.  For  anyone  to  be 
entirely  joyful,  however  united  with  God,  is  not  pos- 
sible here  at  any  rate,  if  he  sees  things  as  they  actually 
are.  And  if  he  is  filled  with  joy,  it  is  a  sign  that  he 
does  not  see  things  as  they  are,  rather  than  that  he 
does ;  a  sign  that  he  has  not  the  true  religion,  rather 
than  that  he  has. 

It  is,  then,  in  these  fatal  spiritual  consequences, 
which   we   have   just   considered,   rather   than    in   its 


304        The  Truth  About  Christian  Science 

intellectual  absurdities  and  inconsistencies,  that  the 
chief  objection  to  this  false  "  science  "  lies.  For  it 
may  be  argued  that  puzzles  or  difficulties  to  our  poor 
human  intellect  are  to  be  expected  in  any  religious 
system  which  comes  from  God ;  and  that  they  actually 
exist  in  the  Christian  doctrine  as  held  by  any  of  those 
who  profess  it. 

But  with  regard  to  these  spiritual  results,  the  light 
which,  as  St.  John  tells  us,  "  enlighteneth  every  man 
that  cometh  into  this  world,"  does  enable  us  to  judge. 
Eddyism  is  not  above  our  reason,  but  simply  contrary 
to  it. 

We  have,  however,  a  more  sure  test  of  its  falsity 
than  any  which  reason  alone  can  give.  It  is  the  same 
with  it  as  with  Mohammedanism,  which  has  no  mys- 
teries to  puzzle  us ;  but  which  is  stamped  most  con- 
clusively as  false  by  its  appeal  to  what  is  evidently 
and  unmistakably  our  lower  nature,  rather  than  our 
higher. 

And  it  is  the  same  with  Eddyism.  In  spite  of  the 
spirituality  which  it  claims  for  itself,  its  offering  to 
us  is  that  of  physical  comfort  and  well-being.  Physi- 
cal, corporal  happiness,  not  freedom  from  the  spirit- 
ual misery  which  afflicts  us,  is  the  bait  which  it  practi- 
cally holds  out  to  us ;  the  healing  of  the  sick,  not  the 
forgiveness  of  sin.  The  latter,  it  is  true,  we  are 
assured  will  come  together  with  the  former,  but  it 
lays  little  stress  on  it. 

In  addition  to  this  fatal  defect,  as  has  been  said,  it 
puts  on  our  intellect  a  strain  which  orthodox  Chris- 
tianity does  not.  It  requires  from  us  the  acceptance 
of  statements  not  beyond  the  reach  of  our  material 
intellect,  but  quite  within  it,  and  irreconcilable  with 
it.     It  is  true  that  many,  perhaps  most  of  those  who 


The  Truth  About  Christian  Science       305 

accept  it,  have  not  thoroughly  reahzed  these  contra- 
dictions to  our  reason  which  it  insists  on ;  but  they  are 
plainly  there,  as  any  one  can  see  who  will  take  the 
trouble  to  examine  what  has  been  brought  out  in  the 
preceding  pages  of  this  book,  or  who  carefully  will 
read  and  ponder  its  own  textbook.  Science  and  Health. 

But  its  greatest  danger  is  spiritual,  and  in  a  way 
even  more  important  than  what  has  just  been  stated. 
It  is  that  it  fosters  a  spirit  of  pride  and  self-sufficiency, 
instead  of  that  of  humility,  which,  hovNCver  little  it 
may  be  put  into  practice,  we  all  feel  in  our  hearts 
to  be  the  foundation  of  all  real  spiritual  excellence 
and  progress  in  true  virtue.  Pride,  which  tries  to 
raise  itself  to  an  equality  with  God,  which  refuses  to 
recognize  the  infinite  and  impassable  gap  between 
the  creature  and  the  Creator,  is  a  far  greater  vice 
than  sensuality,  or  any  other  which  can  be  named. 
And  it  is  this  Satanic  vice  which  Eddyism  endeavors 
to  graft  on  the  natures  of  those  who  would  otherwise 
be  least  inclined  to  it. 

The  words  of  Our  Divine  Lord,  so  strongly  and  so 
often  insisted  on  by  Him,  that  "  whosoever  shall  exalt 
himself  shall  be  humbled,"  are  the  most  emphatic 
condemnation  of  any  that  can  be  made  of  this  whole 
system  of  so-called  "  Christian  Science." 


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The  truth  about  Christian  Science 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00111   5551 


